Katekyo Hitman Reborn! 1. The Stranger Who Appeared Out of Nowhere

**I wanted to publish this story a long time ago, but I just couldn't start a new fanfiction with another two still being written. Then I was supposed to wait until one of them was finished but I had the _briliant _and _amazing_ idea to post on Christmas Eve! Anyways, enjoy the reading!**

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><p><strong>Full Summary: <strong>Giotto was confused. Supposedly, it had to be a normal day signing the endless paperwork while some of his guardians were on missions. It had to be, but while he was signing the paperwork, Giotto received devastating news. A strange and badly injured boy was found and Giotto has no much to do unless interrogate the boy. After some failed attempts and have already given up, the same boy claims he was thrown into the past and needs to find a way to go back to his own time.

**Rated: **T

**Genre: **_Action/Adventure/Family _and **of course**, some humour too, because KHR without humour isn't KHR.

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.**

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

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><p><strong><em>Chapter One: <em>**_The Stranger Who Appeared Out of Nowhere_

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><p>A young man who was sitting in an elegant chair shrank himself as a cold breeze passed by him through the open window. He didn't care about it nor he complains angrily, but that breeze gave him a very bad feeling and he didn't like it. The man looked carefully at the starry sky before closing the window and sitting again in his chair, sighing as he stared at the big amount of paperwork waiting to be signed. He wasn't anticipating <em>that<em> much paperwork; it was surely unexpected.

Actually, his life was full of unexpected things. From the very start, the man named Giotto knew that it would be hard to form a vigilant group to protect people, and yet, he made one. He was surprised when that supposedly _little_ vigilant group turned into a mafia famiglia and he wasn't an ordinary person anymore; he's now a mafia boss—and being a mafia boss was in Giotto's long list of 'unexpected things that happened in my life'.

Honestly speaking, Giotto was like a magnet for trouble.

The young blond continued to carefully read the papers and signed them as fast as he could. He could hear the voices of the butlers and maids from downstairs; probably rushed to prepare the dinner in time and at the same time, avoiding the problems his guardians were surely causing. Just thinking about it made him sigh tiredly; mostly because he could imagine how tough must it be to be a butler or a maid in the Vongola's mansion as Giotto himself was always having headaches because of his troublesome guardians even though he was the boss.

Giotto heard footsteps approaching his office room which made him look up, silently thankful for the interruption that gave him a short break at his paperwork.

"Come in," he called out politely as he heard a soft knock on the door. "The door is unlocked."

The dark wooden door opened and a man in his twenties just like Giotto entered. The man with red –almost pink- hair in an uncommon octopus form and a red tattoo with a peculiar form of flames coming from his right eye to who-knows-where it would end bowed as he headed towards Giotto's office desk.

"G," Giotto said softly, switching from his _boss mode_ to his _friendly mode_. The said man gave a nod in acknowledgement.

"To what I have the pleasure of your honourable visit, dear friend of mine?" He mocked.

Actually, he was pretty tired to just talk in a normal way with his best friend who was, as well, his trustful right-hand man.

G rolled his eyes as he sat on an empty chair.

"You know very well why I am here, _Primo_." He mocked as well and Giotto almost let out a small laugh but saw that G was serious.

The Vongola Primo coughed, trying to mask the laugh that he almost spilled out.

"Excuse me," he muttered, covering his mouth with his right hand. After a few seconds he switched back to his _boss mode_.

"So, what is it this time?" The tone of his voice was deadly serious and he frowned. Recently, his guardians were causing him a lot of problems. "Do not tell me that Alaude and Daemon fought each other again and I have more rooms to repair?"

He sighed at the thought. _More paperwork to sign_, he wearily complained to himself.

"No," G said shaking his head in denial and Giotto looked at him. Then, why was he so serious?

"You haven't forgotten, have you?" his best friend asked in an exasperated tone which made Giotto raise a brow. "It's about the freaking mafia party for crying out loud!"

Giotto gave out an 'oh' and nodded. To tell you the truth, he _almost_ forgot it.

"Then, what should we do? It would be in six days from today and we haven't done any preparations to attend it," his right-hand man said with concern in his eyes. G was obviously worried about this mafia party; it was their 30th time coming to those parties and he doubt it would be the last one they would need to go to.

Giotto stayed in silence, deep in thoughts as he thought about the possibilities of not coming to the party and all the consequences it might bring.

"The previous parties were a disaster and I bet this one will be a disaster as well," G voiced out Giotto's thoughts who wasn't surprised at all since they were long-time friends. "But you know all the consequences of not going to the party, and other families will spread false rumours."

Giotto let out an exhausted sigh, scratching his temples.

"I know, but I really don't want to go to it this year. I'm having this terrible feeling that something bad will happen if we go." He confessed and put his head down while sliding his arms on the desk to support his head.

G was about to say something when a loud _**'BOOM!' **_was heard which was followed by screams downstairs. G was immediately alert, taking his gun out.

Giotto looked up and closed his eyes in tiredness. He knew that the peace in the mansion wouldn't last so long.

"Oh... Not again!" He chocked down his attempt of yelling, and left the office room with G following suit.

'_Oh no! More paperwork to do!_' Giotto thought, frustrated.

The two men walked down the stairs in hurry, seeing some butlers and maids running to find safe places while the first Cloud Guardian and the first Mist Guardian were fighting. That really pissed Giotto off, making a vein pop out on his forehead before he went into his Hyper Dying Will Mode.

Lampo, Asari, and Knuckle who were watching the scene shivered as they saw a large flame of the sky attribute appear on Giotto's forehead. The youngest Guardian, Lampo, gulped in fear because he knew how scary Giotto was when he was angry—and believe me; no one wants to meet Giotto when he is angry.

"Stop this foolishness at this instant, you two!" As much as he wanted to yell at them furiously, he needed to stay calm and act properly as a boss or the two wouldn't respect him. _(Not like they respected him after all…)_

Both Alaude and Daemon, who were unaware of his frightening presence until moments ago, stopped fighting and turned to face Giotto. Daemon made his trident disappear in mist while Alaude lowered and hid his pair of handcuffs, crossing his arms as he looked at Primo with his blue eyes narrowed. He obviously wasn't afraid of his _boss _but, unfortunately, he had to respect that man for the sake of the justice. The same thing doesn't apply though to a certain person with mel- erm, _different_ hair.

"Nufufufu…Primo, you should rest instead of getting worked up about such a trivial fight right here."_Oops._ He had just put salt in the fresh wound. "Why don't you let me deal with that bloodthirsty, cold-eyed, justice-obsessed freak right there, huh?"

Giotto narrowed his eyes, releasing his deadly aura and a lot of killing intent that he only releases when he's pretty angry. Lampo, at this rate, was already hiding himself behind some of the guardians.

"May I ask what in the six hells are you two doing in _my_ living room?" Giotto demanded in a calm tone, alerting his guardians that some terrible danger was approaching at them.

"And may I ask _why_ is it that my other guardians are not stopping their fight and were instead watching and shouting about how their fight was extremely interesting indeed, Knuckle?" He added, not looking at his guardians that were grinning nervously. The person mentioned, Knuckle, let out a nervous laugh and scratched his cheek apologetically.

Giotto hated acting like a scary boss but he had no option other than held a mask of superiority and irritation. Still, he's _really_ irritated by their antics.

Alaude was ready to get out of the room but Giotto had expected something it from his Cloud Guardian. With his sky flames, he managed to move in front of the blond man very quickly.

"You are going nowhere, Alaude," Giotto alerted in a cold tone, which equally matched the cold glare the blond man sent him. "Now that we have reached an agreement, I shall speak about your punishment." He smirked slightly.

"P-Punishment?" G stammered in disbelief. Isn't Primo going _too_ far?

A man with black hair who wore traditional Japanese clothing stepped forward and gave a small chuckle, hoping that it could dispel the menacing auras from the room.

"Now, now," said the normally cheerful Asari, speaking for the first time. He was the Rain Guardian, so for sure; he could turn the things out of that situation. Hopefully. "Giotto, I think Alaude and Daemon had already learned the lesson, no?"

He suggested calmly, sending an _innocent_ glare at the two men who didn't say anything but mentally rolled their eyes. That man, Asari, was too carefree for his own good.

Giotto calmed down and let out a sigh before he got out of his Hyper Dying Will Mode. Even after he returned to 'normal', Giotto held a serious look as he gazed at the two top troublemakers.

"I would _appreciate _if you two, no, _you all_ don't cause any more problems to me," he announced in a calm tone that even Lampo could understand. "As you all know, many mafia families are recently having disagreements, for the lack of words, between them and the Vongola isn't out of it. A war may break out at any moment now and we have to stay focused, not make more confusion between us!"

Giotto cleared his throat and crossed his arms, alerting his guardians that the next subject of his speech was more serious. What could probably more serious than _that_?

"And we have another problem."

G, hearing the silent plea for help that his friend wanted, took the opportunity and stepped forward, getting closer to Giotto who nodded for him speak.

"I shall speak from now."

G explained the whole situation they were currently in and some of the guardians frowned. That's when most of them realize just how hard their situation is.

Knuckle, who was just like the others in his twenties, was a priest with white bandage over his nose and hands. He had dirty honey-coloured eyes and dark brown hair and was holding a serious look while sometimes nodding as G continued talking.

Ugetsu Asari, who have black hair and dark eyes and was always with a harmless and friendly personality, was now wearing a frown as if he was thinking about the solutions to big world problems (e.g. Worldwide Poverty) which wasn't normal since he was _almost_ never seen not smiling.

Lampo, the youngest man with light-green wavy hair and a small black lightning bolt under his right eye, had his eyes closed as he kept yawning every second while G was speaking.

Daemon Spade, who wore a French-like military uniform and has short blue pineapple-melon-ish hairstyle and blue eyes, held a smirk on his face.

Alaude, who has light blond hair and ice blue eyes and was wearing a dark gray trench coat, narrowed his eyes and emitted a dangerous aura because his fight was interrupted just because of a _mere_ problem about a stupid mafia party.

"It sounds like a big problem," Asari concluded after G finished talking.

"Of course it's a big problem!" G roared, annoyed by Asari's usual carefree self. He turned to look at Giotto instead who was still quietly leaning on wall. "What should we do, Primo?"

"I would like to hear your suggestions first," Giotto announced calmly and they all started to chatter. After some minutes of fighting, discussing, shouting, and everything you can imagine, the whole room went silent as the guardians stared at Giotto as they waiting for a verdict.

"Lampo, what do you think?" he asked, turning to stare at the young man who opened his eyes and gave another yawn. "You still didn't speak on what you think about it."

"The great Lampo doesn't want to fight, that's all." Lampo complained in a bored tone, closing his eyes again. Knuckle chuckled at this.

"He's right. We should avoid fighting at any cost," Knuckle commented calmly. "If we have any option to avoid creating more troubles with the other families, then we should do it." Giotto nodded and looked at Alaude.

"Alaude?"

"There is no need to cause any problems if there are no enemies worth to be arrested."

Giotto smiled slightly. He was expecting that kind of answer from Alaude. Well, who wouldn't be?

"Nufufufu… I think we should just defe—"

"Alright, everyone already gave me their suggestions! It's settled then, we should hurry and make the preparations," he said, purposely ignoring Daemon who was very pissed off. "We only have six days until the party and we don't have even a second to waste." After that, the conversation was finished.

"Hn." Alaude was the first to go out of the room.

After that day, Giotto and his guardians were very busy with the arrangements to the party that would be held in Palermo; a city in the opposite side of Sicily which was the place where they were currently living.

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><p>Giotto stretched his arms before he sat on his personal chair at the office room and let out a sigh. He rubbed his temples while murmuring about how tiring his work was.<p>

Two days had passed since he and his guardians started preparing for that mafia party, but they couldn't just go to the party carelessly because it's one of those times where rival families could freely attack the mansion since they're out. The Vongola Boss looked at some documents lying on his desk and let out another sigh. It's almost time for Alaude, Knuckle, Daemon, and Lampo to come back from their little missions; he just couldn't help but pray for their safeties.

There were a lot of things going through his head at the moment, and signing the never-ending paperwork wasn't even included on those things. He looked around, and after making sure that there wasn't any hidden presence in the room since G sometimes hide when he wants to catch him off guard, Giotto leaned on the chair and closed his eyes.

He gave a smile as he feels the tranquillity of not signing those damn boring papers (who needs them anyways?) and made an extremely happy face. The young boss was obviously enjoying every second of his little relaxation and he didn't notice the footsteps coming towards his office room until the door was heavily opened with a slight moan.

Giotto immediately stood up rigidly from his chair and cleared his throat, making a boss' face. He coughed to mask his irresponsibility of moments ago.

Giotto immediately stood up rigidly from his resting pose and cleared his throat, making a boss' neutral face. He coughed to mask his irresponsibility just a few moments ago.

"_Cough… _Excuse me, _cough." _Giotto coughed once again. The person who entered doesn't seem to realize, or maybe he did but doesn't care, that he was faking responsibility.

"Giotto!_" _G roared as he closed the door, walking with some urgency the way towards his friend. "We've got problems!" The red haired man announced and at the same instant Giotto frowned. _More problems? _"I don't quite understand since the subordinate who gave me this notification was in a hurry, but it seems that Lampo was surrounded by some men of an enemy family and he was saved by a mysterious man who defeated all the men."

Giotto instantly got serious, forgetting everything about the relaxation he was thinking a moment ago. If it wasn't enough that Lampo was surrounded by an enemy family, a _mysterious_ man also saved him. That definitely wasn't his day. He stood up from his chair and gestured G to follow him, who would follow him with or without orders.

"How is Lampo?" the blond man asked as they went out of the mansion and entered a carriage. They quickly departed and G loosened the knot of his tie nervously. "G?"

G let out a long sigh before shaking his head.

"He's fine, but…" He paused dramatically, looking at his friend who was looking at him with an anxious look. "The man who saved Lampo… Is dying."

Giotto dropped his jaw and frowned. He was concerned about this stranger's wellbeing, mostly because this certain strange had saved his Lightning Guardian's life. But now, this stranger was _dying. _How would he be able to thank a person who was dying? There should have something he could do about.

"Giotto… I know that look of yours." G frowned.

"Knuckle!" Giotto shouted suddenly, which made G jump in surprise and almost shout. "Knuckle can save the man!"

G nodded in understanding but something seemed _off _to Giotto.

"What is it?" he asked anxiously.

"For all I understood, Knuckle was heading towards to where Lampo was to give him and the man medical treatments, but for what my subordinate said, the man's injuries were pretty bad. Maybe the man cannot be healed."

"G, don't talk about ominous things," Primo's words were filled with worry; a lump was forming in his throat. For strange reasons, he was concerned about the man's wellbeing, not just because he had saved Lampo, but for another reason Giotto didn't know. Maybe it was his intuition, but he couldn't just let the man die. It was all he knew.

Giotto and G stepped out from the carriage and quickly ran to where Lampo and maybe the others were. When they arrived there, they couldn't help but let their eyes widen in fear. Giotto paled and ran towards Lampo who was sat on the ground next to a badly wounded person.

"Lampo!"He reached Lampo's side and knelt on the ground. "Are you alright?"

"G-Giotto!" Lampo sniffed as he looked at his boss with widened eye, and then lowered his eyes in shame. "I-I am fine, b-but this boy…"

_Boy? Didn't G said that it was a man?_

Giotto looked at the said boy and covered his mouth as he saw _that. _The brunet lad was sickly pale with his whole abdomen was bleeding, and he could see a lot of pretty bad injuries in his legs and neck. "H-He is…"

Giotto looked up and with a frown, he pleadingly asked, "How is he, Knuckle? He won't die, right?"

Knuckle, who was still healing the boy's injuries, let out a sigh and shook his head.

"I don't know," he answered honestly, increasing his flames from the ring. "I had already healed most of the worst injuries, but the recovery will depend solely on him."

Just as he said that, the boy groaned and opened his eyes a little. He looked at the men and he didn't show any emotion as he carefully inspected each face.

"Look! He woke up-!" Knuckle said incredulously.

The lad looked at the last person and his eyes widened in slight surprise. Unbelief and utter shock was obvious in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, such was the surprise he was with.

Giotto smiled at the boy before calmly saying, **"It is a good you are awake, young man."** He moved closer to him**. "Do you mind saying who you are? And you don't have to worry, we will not hurt you."**

The brunet continued to face the familiar blond-haired figure that looked at him worriedly. Before the boy could answer the Primo's question, his senses started to fade and his vision went dark. He gave a slight gasp and fainted, but he managed to hear Giotto shout.

"_Oi! Lad!_" Giotto hold the boy's left arm, hoping to wake the young man. Everyone present widened their eyes at the scene. Was the boy really dying? Of course not, Knuckle healed him!

"_Such warm hands," _the boy thought, feeling very comfortable with the man's touch and presence.

And then, everything went black as the boy became unconscious.

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><p>Giotto started to pace back and forth, making the other three men in the room anxious and somehow angry. Their boss was obviously nervous, and the sole reason was a certain stranger they found and the lad who helped one of their friends. The brown-haired boy was lying on the bed with bandages covering his naked abdomen down to his waist. His legs were covered.<p>

The school's dark trousers he wore were replaced by a light-coloured cotton pants. While he slept peacefully, a group of men watched the stranger as they continued arguing.

"Then, no one found out who the kid is?" asked G with a certain impatience.

"No," Giotto answered. He told them that he asked for Alaude's help, but the blond man found nothing. _Nothing._ The great Alaude, who headed a top-notch secret intelligence agency, found nothing. That was almost impossible—but impressive. "All we know is that he apparently appeared out of nowhere because no one in town knows him nor saw him arrived. And then, he helped Lampo defeat some men of an enemy family and we found him almost dying."

"What if he is an enemy?" G pointed out, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the boy.

"Why would the boy help Lampo if he was an enemy at the first place?" Knuckle frowned. He couldn't say for sure if the boy was an enemy or not, but he somehow reminded him of someone closer to him; he's just not sure... _who._ "But it would be better to keep him under surveillance.

"Still, I'm impressive for his high resistance. Based on what Lampo said to me, this boy already had some pretty bad injures; and even when he received more, he didn't fall. I wonder, how's that possible? Most of the normal people could already be dead from a single blow. Perhaps, he must be used to bad treatments from his parents."

"Haha, I agree." Asari chuckled.

"Oi! Can't you be more serious about this?" G yelled.

Giotto sighed as seeing his guardians acting so lightly when he was almost having a heart attack. The boy was asleep for a whole day and when he thought about it, it made him more nervous. Maybe he should drink a good cup of coffee…

The Vongola boss was almost standing up from his chair when the brunette who was still sleeping moments ago woke up as G yelled, and looked with a confused expression at the direction where yell came from. It took a while until his eyes get used to the brightness of the place, and when it saw the four men facing him, his eyes widened as if they would jump from its sockets and the boy quickly rose with a pale face, completely ignoring the throbbing pain in his head and body. He crouched in the corner of the bed, hugging his legs, praying for that to be a very strange nightmare.

The four men stared at him with some curiosity, but it was the dark-haired man with a tall black hat and clearly oriental Japanese features who spoke first.

"_G, look what you have done,_" said Asari as he shook his head in disapproval. "_You woke the poor boy up, and now he is scared._" He pointed to Tsuna that looked at them as if they were ghosts. What, in truth, they really _had_ to be.

"_Wha-? What nonsense are you talking about?_" G shouted.

The boy gulped, blinking some times.

_Dream! Dream! DREAM! This must to be dream! _

"_Hey, kid,_" said Knuckle gently and it caught the boy's attention. "_Do not move too much, I've healed most of your wounds but they're still very serious._" Except from his neutral tone, Knuckle was clearly worried. And then he added to the other two men, "_And G, don't yell at Ugetsu._"

The red-haired man squinted with a look that could almost kill at the man who had spoken.

"_Knuckle, don't__—"_ But before G could complete what he was saying, Giotto, who was until just watching them calmly, lifted up his hand for silence.

"_Everyone, you are scaring him._"

After that comment, everyone stopped talking and looked at the boy.

The brunette shivered as he saw all that men look at him. He was certainly freaking out.

'_A-Am I dreaming or what? They said G, Ugetsu, and Knuckle, didn't they?' _the boy thought, looking petrified at the men in front of him. '_Just what the hell is happening here? W-Why am I seeing Vongola's Primo guardians and he himself in person? And hold on a second… are they speaking Italian?' _

"_Fear not,_" said Giotto in a calm voice. He was already in his Hyper Dying Will Mode; the sky flame was on his forehead, just in case if the boy really was an enemy, although he really doubted it. "_We would not hurt you."_

"_Be careful, Primo," _warned G in a concerned tone. "_This kid can suddenly attack you._" And after that said, he took his gun out.

Knuckle shook his head, asking G to put his gun down, "_He's too hurt to try something, G._"

Meanwhile, the boy was still freaking out.

'_I-If this is not a dream,' _the boy thought, '_So that means I died? B-But they are speaking in perfect Italian… When someone dies they hear people speaking Italian? This can't be happening! I can't just die yet!'_

"_What is your name?_" Giotto gently asked, not daring to get close to the frightened boy with brown hair. For a strange sensation he felt a strange attachment to the lad, probably because they had some physical similarities, or maybe because his trusty Hyper Intuition was telling him that the boy posed no danger, or just because _that _boy had defeated the men who dared to surround his Lightning Guardian.

He noticed the confuse look the boy was giving him and added, "_Do you speak Italian?_" Seeing as the boy seemed confused by something, it could only mean that there is a language barrier between them.

The three guardians looked at Giotto as if he was some sort of genius. Of course! The boy had some oriental features just like Asari, and then probably he hadn't understood what they were talking about. It has to be that, or what could explain the sudden surprise when the boy woke up and looked at them?

It took a while before the boy answer, he still thought it was a dream or that he was dead, but something inside him said that whole situation was real. _Very real_. And his intuition could almost never be wrong. Ever.

"_S-Si. I speak Italian,_" he answered with a still somewhat uncertainty if he had said the words correctly. His demonic tutor has been teaching him Italian for the last months so he was able to understand people speaking Italian and speak, at least, naturally in Italian. Well, he somehow managed to learn, and it's all thanks to his sadistic tutor methods.

Giotto smiled and repeated the first question, "_So, what is your name, young man?_"

"_S-Sawada Tsunayoshi._" He responded sheepishly. Inside him, he was freaking out due to the current _impossible_ facts. First of them all, how could he be talking right now with his ancestor, the Vongola Primo, who should have been dead for at least about a hundred and twenty years?

"_Sawada? Another Japanese?_" G asked sullenly, looking from the corner of eye at Asari, the Rain Guardian.

"_Haha, what a coincidence!_" Asari laughed cheerfully. Asari, feeling closer to Tsuna because of their nationality, decided to approach him, and gave a smile. "Tsunayoshi-kun, then?"

"Hai." Tsuna felt calmer by the presence of the first Rain Guardian. He reminded Yamamoto so much that it was almost inevitable not feeling comfortable by his very presence.

"Ah! It's so nostalgic to hear someone speaking in Japanese as well, haha!" He laughed again. He was just _too _much like Yamamoto!

"Tch!" G muttered turning his head to other side, frowning.

"_Oh, so we have here another Japanese, that is EXTREME!_" the Sun Guardian, Knuckle, shouted, making Tsuna remember about Ryohei-nii-san.

Giotto cleared his throat, making everyone in the room look at him.

"So, who are you?" Giotto spoke in fluent Japanese, mentally thanking Ugetsu for teaching him how to speak Japanese. He crossed his arms, showing a calm expression despite his bossy yet unemotional voice.

Tsuna looked down at the bed. He simply couldn't say that he was the to-be-soon Vongola Decimo in his own time period, could he? How could he say that he came from the future for like, who knows how many hundred years back?

"Oi, kid!" G shouted in fluent Japanese too. He was getting annoyed with the boy's actions. "Say something when people ask you something!"

Tsuna shivered. The first Storm Guardian was certainly scarier than Gokudera.

Giotto saw the boy's reaction and sighed.

"_G, Ugetsu, Knuckle,_" he muttered drawing their attentions, turning to look at his guardians, who raised their eyebrows. "_You are excused now. I feel that he will feel more comfortable if this room isn't full of people looking at him._"

_Wrong! _Tsuna thought, feeling extremely unlucky. _How can I feel more comfortable staying alone in a room with Vongola Primo questioning me, for God's sake! _

"_B-But, Primo!_" G was clearly concerned about his boss' safety. He was just like Gokudera when it came about Tsuna's wellbeing. "_It can be dangerous leave you alone with _him_!_"

Then, Asari landed a hand on G's shoulder and nodded, giving him a smile.

"_When Giotto decide that there is no danger, we can only trust him._" His voice tone was calm and trustful.

"_Primo, if something happens, please__—" _G was saying but Giotto interrupted him.

"_G."_ He warned calmly. G frowned as he looked carefully at his boss and understood; he trusts his best friend after all. He silently apologized. "_Nothing will happen._"

"_Understood._" And in an instant, the three guardians left the room and closed the door behind them.

Giotto took a while before he turned to face Tsuna. The boy was still looking at the bed, too afraid to face those orange eyes and realize that Vongola Primo was looking through him.

"Tsunayoshi, wasn't it?" Giotto asked gently but Tsuna didn't dare look at him and just nodded. "Could you tell me why you are at such place when you saved one of my friends?"

Tsuna didn't answer. Neither had he known why he was at that place anyway. Giotto sighed at his response.

"Then tell me, did you know that some of my friends were there?"

Tsuna quickly shook his head in denial. Vongola Primo took this as a sign that the boy was lost and happened to appear there.

"I assume that you are a native Japanese. Please, correct me if I am wrong."

The young Vongola shook his head again, this time, agreeing.

"What are you doing here in Italy?"

The brunette looked up in surprise.

"I-Italy?" He exclaimed with wide eyes, for the first time looking at the blond man, but he immediately look down, embarrassed.

Of course, he had some suspicious, but hearing that he was really in Italy was by far the most shocking thing he had heard ever since he had arrived there.

"Yes. We are in Italy." Giotto respondeda bit surprised. "How did you get here, anyways?"

Tsuna swallowed heavily.

"I don't know," And it wasn't a lie, _not_ at all.

Giotto's eyes narrowed a little, trying to discern a lie, but to his surprise, the boy seemed to be telling him the truth.

"How old are you?"

"S-Sixteen." Tsuna answered uncomfortably.

_Too young, _Giotto thought with a bit of surprise, although he thought the boy was a year or two younger. _And yet, he was badly injured like that- near death even._

"By any chance do you know who I am?"

_If I lie, he will know, _Tsuna thought. He was mentally running in circles as he thought about a solution to get out of that problem. _But if I tell him the truth, he'll think I'm a mad person. Then…_

"I-I can guess." He preferred to not tell the truth, he was just omitting it.

"Tsunayoshi," Giotto spoke in a voice that clearly said he was getting closer to the point he wanted to get. Tsuna gulped, feeling he should prepare himself for the worst.

"Why were you injured like that? All we knew is that, when Lampo and you met, you already were with such injuries. Your fights with those men only worsen them," He said seriously, making Tsuna feel a shiver down his spine. "And why do you have an artefact inside one of the pockets of your clothes with _Vongola Famiglia _written on it?"

_Damn it! He found it! _Tsuna thought as he started to panic. He was in deep trouble, and it was really hard to get out with it.

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><p>You damn woman! A cliffy? No. I was planning to end here but I can't stop writing, my mind is really working hard...Sorry, continuing the story...<p>

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><p>"Why do you have an artefact inside one of the pockets of your clothes with <em>Vongola Famiglia <em>written on it?"

Tsuna looked at Giotto with widened his eyes, and the blond man maintained a passive expression as he stared back at the boy. Tsuna was desperate, how could he get out of such problem? He was pretty sure he had hid very well.

"I-I cannot tell you." He swallowed heavily; hoping that Giotto doesn't kill him or something. But he preferred to rely on what Reborn once said him, that the Vongola Primo was regarded as the sky itself, because he was open to all opinions and was extremely gentle. Maybe Primo wasn't about to kill him.

Rather than doing any violent act, Giotto sighed once again.

"Why?"

Tsuna avoided his gaze again and looked at the bed.

"It is not that I don't trust you," he muttered, but Giotto could clearly hear him. It took some minutes before he spoke again. He was choosing the right words. "You wouldn't believe me if I tell you anyways."

_Okay, this is getting worrisome. _Giotto thought. _This kid has a clear reason for not wanting to answer my question. Am I forcing him too much?_

"You could laugh at me," Tsuna continued, not noticing Giotto's worried gaze at him, he was just deep in thoughts. "Or mislabel me as a mad person."

This caught Giotto off guard which only makes him act without composure.

"Of course not!" He almost shouted, scaring Tsuna with his reaction. "Oh, sorry."

_Sorry? _Giotto said incredulously to himself in troughs. _Am I apologizing just like that, in the middle of an interrogation? This kid really has something uncommon…_

Meanwhile, Tsuna was arguing desperately to himself.

_W-Why Vongola Primo is apologizing to me? _

Giotto coughed and repeated what he had said but in a calmer tone.

"Of course not, Tsunayoshi."

"But…" Tsuna was afraid, which was very clear to Primo. The boy frowns as he thinks about the consequences. It could change the future. He could _cease_ to exist. That was too much to his little brain.

Giotto stood up and said slowly, "Try."

Tsuna looked at him with surprise. He never imagined see his ancestor acting like that. "Test me. I am quite an open minded person."

Giotto couldn't help but take a step back. It was true the Vongola Primo didn't think that the boy in front of him was a suspicious person, but he has to act as a mafia boss and be careful about the boy's true intentions. He needed to know the whole truth. Why was that boy injured very badly? That question never left his mind for even a second.

Tsuna looked down again. He could hear the man's breath and the birds singing outside. He stayed like a statue for at least the next five minutes, and Giotto had nothing to say but wait for the boy's answer. He won't try to force the boy to tell him everything; he was curious, of course, and he needed to know about Tsuna's identity, but he wouldn't force him unless absolute necessary.

What was he supposed to do? Leave the boy alone and let him get out of his life without knowing anything about him, even after he had saved Lampo? Of course he could to that, but Giotto had a bad feeling and his hyper intuition saying him that he shouldn't ignore the boy.

So many things were going through his mind at that moment that he didn't noticed Tsuna looking curiously at him. That boy reminded him of himself when he was still a naive little kid. G said he had such a curious look every place he looked at and that same look could be seen in Tsuna's eyes. Suddenly, Giotto felt a feeling of emptiness and he immediately understood.

It was too early.

He didn't want to know the truth, at least not _yet._

"I want to know the whole truth," Primo said solemnly, looking at those big brown eyes with his very own orange eyes, caused because of his HDWM. "Who exactly are you? Despite your innocent appearance, I can see you are not any kind of person."

_I-Innocent appearance? Was that some kind of compliment? _

"Or at least it was everything I wanted to know," Giotto completed and gave a warm smile. "If you don't want to tell me truth, I won't force you to. You can tell me anytime you want."

Tsuna blinked confused. The Vongola Primo just had said him he didn't want to know the truth, unless he says it with no pressure?

He blinked once again.

"S-So, you're saying me that I can tell you but at the same time it's only my choice to tell you or not?" Tsuna stammered, spilling out his surprise and disbelief.

Giotto sighed. "Yes, you can understand by that way. I cannot demand you to do something you don't want to, but someday, as you'll have to live here for some days or weeks because of your injures, you will have to tell me. I fear, though, that somehow someone will argue to me because of it." After that, Tsuna could see Giotto winced as if thinking about unpleasant things.

"Are you alright?"

Giotto gave a small smile and assured him with a nod. "Yes, thank you."

He winced once again. Tsuna arched his eyebrow and when he was about to ask him if he was _really _fine, but Giotto just shook his head. "It's just a shiver, nothing else. I have an impression that someone was talking about me in a not friendly way, though." He let out a nervous laugh.

_It must be a very fearsome person to make the Primo feel like this! _Tsuna thought impressed.

Giotto was brought back to reality when he and Tsuna heard a knock on the door. "Come in," He said.

The door was carefully opened and G stepped in. "Excuse me, Primo, but there's an important matter we have to discuss about," he politely announced.

Giotto arched his eyebrow; seeing how G was serious and nodded to him to continue. "What is it?"

G let out a weary sigh and leaned on the wall as he lit a cigarette, and slowly exhaled the smoke. Giotto knew that G was stressed because he always did that when he's pressured.

After a few seconds, G looked up and stared straight at Giotto.

"Daemon just came back from his last mission."

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><p><strong>This was a very long chapter, you can say it's more like a introduction chapter than a first chapter actually. I suppose I don't need to ask you to review what you think about this chapter, ne? Anyways, please do leave a review and tell me what you thought about it. Critiques are always welcome! I'll be very happy reading it and it can even help me to improve my skills. Hm, one more thing, the explanation about how Tsuna time traveled will be explained in the next chapters.<strong>

**Happy Merry Christmas Eve for those who like me live in a country that isn't Christmas yet and Merry Christmas for you lucky person! :D**

_Edited on 03.22.2012: I must give **BeArOcKpRiNxEsS **my eternal thanks for beta'ing this chapter_, _because I really don't know what I'd do without her help._ _Really, thank you!_


	2. There's No Such Foolish Thing As Peace

**Yes, I'm alive! Firstly, I'm sorry for not updating as fast as I said I'd to one of my reviewers****. I will try to be faster for onwards on. ****Second, thank you for your patience and everyone who favorited this story. Seriously, that was amazing!** **Third, and not least, my thanks to BeArOcKpRiNxEsS for beta'ing this chapter too. Without her this little piece of work would probably become confusing.  
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**And before I forget, the chapter one was betaed and it's even better, please go there to read it again.  
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**Okay, let's go to the chapter...  
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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Two: <strong>There's No Such Foolish Thing As Peace Sir_

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><p>It was quite a lovely morning. The birds were chirping happily, the sun was shining, the flowers had fully bloomed, and the garden was very colourful. The dew was dripping off from leaf to leaf, forming a unique and smooth rhythm.<p>

Everything was fine, thank you very much.

Truly, it _would _be a lovely morning to Giotto if not by the annoying noises, no, _shouts_, coming from downstairs. For some reason he didn't know, the mansion was too noisy for a nice morning like that. He could imagine what was happening, and would like to check if his suspicions were true, but he was in the middle of an interrogation—ironically with a boy who looked like a miniature version of him as a suspect. Aside from his brown hair and honey-coloured eyes, the boy looked exactly like him.

The blond man was about to ask Tsuna another question when the door of the room where they were in opened, revealing a very pale G. He looked like he had just seen a ghost; a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek and the knot of his green tie was undone. The always composed (not really) G was sweating bullets and apparently as nervous as a soon-to-be father would be.

Giotto realized it and quickly frowned, but said nothing.

"Excuse me, Primo, but there's an important matter we have to discuss about," G said formally as ever which meant that whatever they had to discuss about was _very_ serious. Very rarely did Giotto had seen G act like that- well actually, back in their childhood days, G was the one who always lost his patience very easily and the one who always become nervous about important matters. He was also the one who always had shown more emotions when something wrong happened with his long time friend Giotto.

Putting that aside, G had an impressive strength that made Giotto admire him, though it was a two-edged sword too.

Since Knuckle had become a guardian as well, he immediately warned G that he should know how to control his emotions better and to not let the anger or whatever he felt went up to his head.

They were already in their nearly twenties now, and they had many battles together along with the other guardians. The mafia world was tough for those who lost themselves in emotions, and G learned it in the hardest way. It was traumatic enough to make him oversee his actions and made him learn how to control himself better.

Since then, G was the most composed man you would ever know. And the said very calm G was incredibly pale and nervous now. Giotto couldn't think of anything in the many things that could've done that to his friend. For his expression, it was worse than the surprise they had when they found the brunette boy, which they known later on as 'Tsuna'.

Giotto arched his eyebrow and nodded in agreement for G continue. "What is it?"

What G did the next second only made Giotto become even more worried.

His right-hand man let out a heavy long sigh and leaned back on the wall. _That_ surely wasn't a good sign. Then, the red-head pulled out a cigarette and lit it very quickly. G took in a second, thoughtfully staring the ceiling, before slowly exhaling the smoke with a calm but 'having to tell bad news' face on. Giotto once again realized his Storm Guardian's actions and gulped loudly, and in thoughts, preparing himself for the worst. Everything G had done so far since he entered the room…that for sure wasn't a good sign, G was stressed for a very bad reason.

Giotto waited patiently.

Without putting off the cigarette of his mouth, the red-head something in a very calm voice, as if he was talking about the weather.

"Daemon has just come back from his mission."

The first thought Giotto had in mind was to greet his Mist Guardian, and then would have a brief conversation about how the mission went just like always; whether it was good or bad he would like to know.

The second thought would be to let G sit down and give him a glass of water to make him slightly calm down.

The third would be that there's something terribly wrong going on. He didn't know what the true meaning of what G said was but it was obviously serious. He tried to think of something that could have gone wrong, but nothing comes to his mind. Daemon was a strong man; a loyal person and he loved the Vongola like no one else does, so there wasn't any reason to be worked up.

G, noticing his long time friend's silence, frowned and confusedly looked at him. "Giotto, did you hear me?"

The blond man was snapped out of his thoughts and looked up, blinking a few times. He hadn't noticed he wasn't paying attention of what G continued to say after that. It was one of characteristics that G hated the most; he has the ability to go deep in his thoughts like no one else can.

Sometimes, even Giotto hated that side of his. He had lost many trails of conversation because of that and in the mafia world, it was a terrible mistake. He knew it because once, in one of his first meetings with the other bosses, he entered his inner world and had a brief conversation with himself in the middle of an important meeting. Not that the meeting was boring -it was far from that- but the man who was talking had a terrible habit of speaking steeply and slowly

Not to mention, his long black beard gave Giotto the creeps, which kept him busy with the thinking of _crow's nest_. He couldn't help but look away when the man scratched his beard; it scarily looked like any moment that time a baby crow could spring from there.

Giotto was _really_ a normal man! He would bet half of Vongola's fortune that every one of the other bosses was bored like him. He surely could do it with no hesitation if only it wasn't for someone he knew named G. The red haired man told him repeatedly to be more responsible when talking about money or their funds could disappear any time if they didn't take a carefully care of it.

He shook his head. Seriously, he sometimes wondered if he was too soft like G said multiple times or if G was the one who was too restrict.

_Oh. _He did it again.

Giotto carefully looked up with a small smile as an apology.

"You were again in your own world letting me do the talking all alone, did you know?" G said, sighing. "Did you listen to what I first said at least?" he asked, massaging his temples, wearily.

Giotto smiled, feeling rather guilty, and rubbed his neck in embarrassment. "Daemon…he come back, isn't that right?"

G snapped his hands with mockery happiness.

"So you listened to me after all!" he sarcastically said, which made Giotto cynically look away but then G's face instantly became serious. "The thing I have to tell you… it's not a joke."

Tsuna, who was quiet all along, stared at them with worried eyes. He could somewhat feel that something wrong was happening and he possibly could end up being involved in it. It wasn't that surprising though; he always attracted the most impossible situations to him like a magnet. _Sigh._

Just after Primo and G-san left the room, Tsuna pulled out the pockets of his worn jeans and began to look for anything to help him feel safe. His Vongola Gear was the first thing he got his hands on. He gently touched the odd elevations in the weird ring with his index finger and closed his eyes. It was in times like these that he was thankful for having that thing; it was a reassurance that he could come back. Perhaps Primo-san knew something and could help him out, but explaining to him was the main problem.

How can you tell someone you came from the future without looking crazy? There's _no way_ that could happen.

He sighed and opened his eyes, facing the ceiling.

Slowly, he put back his VG inside the pocket of his new pants and stood up. Making some effort to walk, Tsuna walked to the window and stood there while looking to the outside of the mansion. The garden was large and well treated. There were beautiful flowers planted near an old and huge fountain and had at least a dozen small tea tables in the middle of the garden.

Looking carefully, three of them probably had just been used moments ago because the butlers and maids were cleaning them up

Tsuna returned his stare back to the room again and measured every spot. It was a simple bedroom. There was a single bed, the window had no curtains and the furniture was pretty worn. The marks on the ground indicated that the room was once used as a deposit and a rectangular patch on the wall of white and cold stone indicated that there was a large furniture there before. There was a half-opened first aid kit on the top of the old desk, revealing clean gauzes and a roll of bandages used several times before. Looking down, he gently touched up his wounds.

Then, he noticed a piece of paper in the middle of the bed and took it.

"Mister Sawada, make sure to clean up your wounds every 12 hours, signed Knuckle." Tsuna read out loud and gave a small smile, feeling something warm inside of his chest. Before he could put the piece of paper back on the bed, he noticed a small note on the back of the paper. "P.S. You should extremely have your meals properly! You're too thin kid!"

Tsuna blushed furiously and looked away; he certainly wasn't the first to say that to him. Looking back in his memories, someone familiar had told him the same thing not long ago.

_"Sawada! You're EXTREMELY too tiny! You have to eat more and grow bigger!"_

Looking back to the window, he touched his VG again and let out an exhausted sigh.

"Nii-san would surely love to meet Knuckle-san again."

In another place of the mansion, Giotto and G walked side by side and a strange aura between the two was keeping the blond from saying anything funny. Giotto looked at G in the corner of the eye suspiciously. The other man was usually quiet today and strangely serious, but if you look closely, you could see a frown etched on his face.

"G," he began quietly but the other just responded with a quiet "hum", not giving much attention. "Why are you so nervous? Did something go wrong with Daemon's mission? What did he say?"

G tensed.

So many questions! So many things to be said and it was all annoying to G. He feels like someone in the middle of the fire line. Why the hell did Daemon had to tell him everything? He hadn't asked anything. He wasn't Asari — who as an annoying one. But analyzing the situation better, perhaps Daemon had done the right thing by telling him.

"Please, answer me, G!" Giotto insisted.

G avoided looking at his best friend. It was unpleasant; having to hide something from someone who gave so much to other people, and receive nothing in return.

Suddenly, swallowing had seemed to become so difficult.

"I... You... You should just wait for the official report."

Giotto gave a disappointed sigh, and shook his head, defeated. "You're right. I just really hope it isn't something really terrible. Besides, you would tell me if it was, right?"

G didn't say anything. Rather than that, he was too embarrassed to say anything. It was as if he was lying to Giotto, and oh God, he hated that feeling so much.

On the other hand, Giotto was thinking about something else- the young boy Tsunayoshi. He was feeling guilty for leaving him alone with no further explanations. He should've brought him along. In addition, he needed to introduce the boy to Daemon. _Ah, _he really should have brought the boy with him.

Usually, he would not have left a guest alone in his room without giving him a tour at the mansion and a welcome lunch, but something inside him told him that maybe it wasn't the best time for that. And on a second thought, that Japanese boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada is not what might be called as a usual guest. The boy was practically dead when they found him for God's sake!

There was a lot he wanted to ask the boy, like how on the green Earth did he get those wounds, or what was that strange artefact he carried in his pocket. He couldn't get rid of the immense curiosity that filled him every time he remembered the look of surprise and awe in the boy's face. He couldn't sit still for a moment since Tsuna had arrived and his Hyper Intuition wouldn't stop giving him headaches, but leaving those thoughts aside, Giotto focused on what was before him.

He and all his guardians were in the spacious and luxurious living room, each one of them in their own favourite places.

G, who had arrived a little before him, was with a cigarette already on hand and smoked thoughtfully. His feet moved restlessly up and the knot of his green tie was loose even more than before. Sweat ran down his face as he stared at the fireplace. Giotto was fairly sure he was talking to himself in thoughts.

Asari, who probably didn't know what's happening just like him, smiled a little when Giotto came in the room. The Japanese man was sitting in a red chair and the way he was sitting indicated that he was calm_. As always._

Knuckle had the sleeves of his black robe rolled up and he held a book in hand, and by its title, Giotto discovered it was about first aid. He should be studying since he told Giotto that some of the wounds Tsunayoshi acquired could be found with some traces of poison that he had no knowledge about.

Lampo, the youngest, was lying without any care on a red couch with a bowl of candies in his arms. He hummed as he ate and savoured each one. When looking at Daemon, Giotto could see he was sick just by looking at Lampo who licked his fingers every single time he finished eating a sweet.

By looking closely at Daemon, which was the reason why he had been called there to begin with, Giotto realized he was holding a thick stack of papers and somehow looked pale. Wait, no, he is so freaking pale. Oh please, that day surely couldn't be even more unpredictable... right?

Alaude, on the other hand, was like always far away from everyone and held a serious face. Well, it was better. If he had the same expression G and Daemon had, then Giotto would surely freak out.

Giotto took the liberty to look back at all his guardians and had the feeling that suddenly the living room seemed smaller and suffocating. Although they apparently were calm, there was a strange aura around them. He was speaking for himself, but whatever Daemon had to say could end up with the false peace they were having.

Back to Tsuna, he was having a tough time.

Lying on the floor, he held one of his arms tightly closer to him while looking for his medicine that Knuckle-san had left for him on the desk. The pain had worsened since he had tried to open the door and it became even more unbearable when a severe headache struck him. It was the second cup of medicine he had drunk, he was sure of it, but the pain didn't cease. The phenacetin*, as it was written in the small bottle, might have a slow effect. At least it had a bad taste; it was a good sign.

Tsuna was about to stand up from the floor again when his Hyper Intuition made his headache worse.

"What's up with this? I-It won't stop!" he complained, clutching his temples with both hands.

Minutes later, the pain had gone and Tsuna was asleep like a baby in his temporary bed.

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><p>Giotto stood, still looking at Daemon carefully with a straight stare. The blond man was trying his best to keep his cool but it was as clear as the day that he's having a hard time when his guardians took notice of his hands. They were as white as a paper, so tightened they were into fists. They were shaking uncontrollably, and his shoulders were stiff. G had already been prepared and stood up from his chair, ready for any sudden moment Giotto could do.<p>

His sea blue eyes were hidden behind his bangs so no one could see the scary look he had on his eyes.

"Giotto…" G tried to say, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, only to be avoided with a quick movement. He was taken aback, but didn't give up. "Look…we knew that something like _that _could happen, we were prepared for this, no, you were!"

Giotto suddenly turned to face his childhood friend and what G saw made him even more surprised and worried. The look Giotto had in his lifeless eyes, it looked like it made a greater shock than he thought Giotto would take. The mafia world once again succeeded on making his good friend's heart broke into pieces.

No one in the room dared to step on G's way because they knew what could happen if they do. The red-head pated Giotto's head like fatherly and offered him his shoulder, but the blond man didn't cry. Giotto only sobbed, but it was fair enough to make G feel a sharp pain in his heart, as if a dagger had pierced it.

The Storm Guardian signalized to Asari and Knuckle with a slight movement of the head and they immediately understood, telling without the use of words to the others that it was better to leave them alone. And it was exactly what all of them did.

Not even when Giotto and G were alone in the living room did he shed a single tear. It was for a foolish reason, and G knows and understands.

After Knuckle closed the door behind him, Asari and he exchanged worried glances. Even Lampo, who mostly didn't care about what is happening around him and only think about his own self, was now looking sad. His sweets unexpectedly were no longer as delicious as before and his throat was dry, but wasn't thirsty at all. How could he, after watching the scene from before – the youngest would even bet that even the heartless Alaude was speechless and possibly with a hint of sadness because of Giotto.

Daemon and Alaude were the first ones to leave the corridor and the rest followed to their favourite spots in the mansion. Every one of them silently made an agreement not to mention about that topic while Giotto wasn't fully recovered.

"They already left, Giotto," G muttered letting out a tired sigh as he patted in his friend's back.

He purposely waited for the others to leave to be able say kind words to his boss. He was sure that none of the other Guardians, with the exception of Giotto, had seen him speak words of comfort to someone before. After all, ever since they first met, he had only shown his strong and conceited side. He didn't want to ruin that image; it's for their sakes too.

"I don't understand," Giotto suddenly spoke out, which made G turn his attention back to the blond young man.

"What is it that you don't understand?" he asked, guiding Giotto to sit in an armchair. He did the same, sitting in front of Giotto, as he waited for him to continue.

Giotto rubbed his eyes with both hands. "I'm feeling sad and lonely, and yet... the tears won't come... I wonder why."

G looked down. What could he say? What _should_ he say? He never experienced that kind of pain. No matter how many comforting words he thought of, none of them could give the real feeling he wanted Giotto to feel. They were just mere words.

His hands clenched into fists. Just when his friend needed his help he couldn't do or say anything. He failed, not just as his right-hand man, but also as his best friend.

Giotto continued talking though, "Perhaps I'm just a heartless man."

That made G's blood boil and he abruptly stood up from his armchair with his face contorted in anger.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" he yelled, which made Giotto look at him in surprise.

Giotto was the kindest man in the entire world and the best friend you could ever have the pleasure to have. Then, how could that same man be saying those terrible words of himself? Unforgivable!

"G-G…what are you…?" Giotto tried to say something but his mind went blank.

G walked closer to Giotto and grabbed him by the collar of his white shirt.

"If you have to put the blame on someone, then you better put the blame on me!" His grasp on Giotto's clothing became tighter, making the blond slightly choke. By the look G was giving him, Giotto could see he was very serious. And if he was not mistaken, the last time he had seen that determined look was two years ago. It was a terrible day, just like this one.

"It's my fault that all of this happened after all! If I hadn't been selfish back then, and hadn't said those terrible words... What happened could have surely been avoided!"

"You're overreacting, G!" Giotto shouted, shaking G by his shoulders. Ever since he first met the red haired before him, he had been always been this stubborn. "In the end, I'm the one who decided. And I'm the one who should be crying, but I'm not crying, am I?"

"Why are you making such a fuss about not crying?" G muttered. He let go of Giotto's collar and sat on the floor, resting his head on one arm. "Listen, I don't know how to put this but it doesn't matter whether you cry or not. What matters is what you feel inside of your heart. Are you feeling sad? That's good. It shows that you're truly upset. Are you feeling lonely? Then don't be. Although it pains me to say it, but you can count on those so-called guardians of yours."

G scratched the back of his neck and looked away, face flushed in embarrassment. This is why he didn't want anyone around, it was too embarrassing!

"And you can count on me too you know; I'm your best friend after all."

A gentle smile appeared on Giotto's face and he shook his head slightly.

"That's right. Sorry for making you worry, G." His smile grew bigger and that sharp pain in his heart suddenly disappeared. He figured out that when he accepted that pain and listened to G's gentle words, he felt like a weight had been lift off his shoulders. "Thanks, my friend."

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><p>Standing still and doing nothing in that room was very boring, so that's why he opened the door and decided to go out. The brunette looked suspiciously to the corridors and took a step at a time. After making sure his bandages were tight and couldn't loosen up, he stared walking.<p>

He walked through the corridors, holding up the wall to support him if he ever felt dizzy again and carefully looking where he was stepping or he could end up lost. Although the mansion was pretty much the same as the one in his time, Tsuna still felt different. The white stone of the walls was younger than what he could remember, and the floor wasn't as worn as the mansion Tsuna was familiar with. The site plan, however, was still the same.

He arrived in front of a large glass door, and upon entering, he realized it was sort of a dining room. There was a long dark wood table in the middle of the room, the carpet matched perfectly with the polished wooden floors, and the white stonewalls combined nicely with the light marble fireplace. The golden candlesticks gave a special touch to the Italian Renaissance-style room.

He didn't have much time to admire the beautiful room though, because soon after, he heard footsteps coming towards him. When he looked at the direction of where the sound came from, he really wished he didn't.

_Fear, _it was what he felt.

Standing in front of him with a cold expression was Alaude; the Cloud Guardian of Vongola Primo.

He didn't dare to move even an inch. For a moment, he left like he had reduced in size because the blond man looked way taller than him. The man's look told him that he was looking (and judging) him from head to toe, as if he could even see his interior and his innermost secrets.

Alaude narrowed his eyes, which made his look to become even more frightening to the brunette.

"Who are you?" he asked coldly.

Tsuna gulped and began to sweat bullets.

_Scary~! The Cloud Guardian of Vongola Primo gives me more creeps than Hibari-san! _

Gathering all the courage he could have in a lifetime, Tsuna opened his mouth to speak.

"M-my name's Tsun-" Butbefore he could even complete what he was saying, Alaude interrupted him.

"I am not asking what your name is, I'm asking who you are!" the blond French man demanded with more authority than before. Although Alaude thinks it was a shame for someone like him to ask such questions when he should be the one who would be trying to find it out, he had no other option but do that shameful act. He couldn't find anything about this brat after all. "Where did you come from? Why are you here? Why were you with such severe injuries as if coming from a battle not long ago? Are you from the mafia? What are your true intentions?"

Tsuna couldn't help but blink and gape. Not even in his dreams could he think that Alaude-san, who was so much like Hibari-san in many aspects, would talk so much. But putting that strange fact aside, the man before him didn't nicely ask for answers; he obviously demanded for it! And he was waiting, patiently or not, and he was looking at him with those fierce cold-blue eyes. Tsuna had no choice but make a very good excuse.

Just as when he was ready to say something, he heard more footsteps coming towards the room, directing his attention to the newcomer.

Lampo stepped in the room while looking straight at him, as if he hadn't seen Alaude glaring at him. If Lampo had seen that, he surely was ignoring it and doing quite a good job.

"There you are!" said the green-haired teenager boy, coming towards Tsuna, and now the brunette was sure that the young Lightning Guardian was ignoring the deadly aura Alaude was emitting. "Mini Primo."

Tsuna almost chocked on the new nickname he had acquired and had a hard time to gain air.

"Excuse me… B-but, m-mini Primo?" he asked embarrassedly.

He somehow felt proud. They were comparing him to Primo, the person he admired the most. And well, if he didn't, Reborn could kick his butt.

Lampo put his hands in his pockets and gave a small yawn.

"That odd priest Knuckle was the one who called you that," he justified, giving a shrug. "But the great me have to admit that there are some similarities." Saying that, the green-haired took a closer look at the young boss. "Ah! Ore-sama is called Lampo. Kneel before me."

Tsuna's eyebrows twitched and he sweat dropped.

_Why I have this feeling that he's worse than Lambo? _He thought, giving a grim smile.

"T-Tsunayo-" And once again Tsuna was interrupted with his self-introduction.

This time it was G, the Storm Guardian, who bolted into the room. The hot-blooded man looked around the room with an angry expression, by the way.

"Found you, you lazy coward!" he yelled at Lampo, who, in turn, hid behind Tsuna.

"Oh. _You_." G said with a slightly bitter tone, looking down on Tsuna.

Something was telling Tsuna that the red haired man, who looked so much like Gokudera, didn't like him. He gulped. G was still staring at him.

Just as when he opened his mouth to say something, the Vongola Decimo felt Lampo trembling behind him. He wasn't surprised at all, it was pretty much the same relationship Gokudera and Lambo shared in their present time. Then, he turned to the teenager and gave him his trademark smile; innocent, warm and bright.

Lampo looked with surprise at the boy and immediately understood what he meant.

_Don't be afraid, I'm here._

It was just like what Giotto does when Lampo is afraid. And that made him blush, because no one made him feel as protected as his boss did. No, Giotto was more than a boss to him; he was like a big brother.

Then Tsuna looked at G, who was trying to understand why Lampo looked static at the Japanese boy and why Alaude looked at the whole situation with narrowed eyes. He also had seen the boy's smile and also thought it was quite like Giotto's, but there's nothing to be worked up.

"_Ano_… G-san," Said Tsuna shyly, sweating a bit because the man before him. "_Ettou… _P-please, do not yell at Lampo-kun."

He first looked scared at G, but then gave the same smile he had given Lampo seconds ago.

The bright smile had taken G totally off guard. A moment ago he was angry and couldn't remember anymore about what made him felt like that or why, but now he was feeling as light as a feather.

Moments later, Tsuna suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He hugged his arms as he felt the chill a second time and looked around the room, searching for something suspicious. Apparently, the other occupants of the room also felt the same because they were on guard.

"Nufufufu~ Why are all the little dogs gathered here?" A new person asked, arriving at their location.

"Oh, Primo!" he said as he saw the familiar fluffy hair between G and Lampo, but then noticed something different. "Wait a second. Primo, since when did you darkened your hair?" A man with melon-ish hairstyle walked towards Tsuna and grabbed his shoulder.

Tsuna, who until then hadn't noticed the newcomer, turned abruptly to face who touched him when he felt a hand grab his shoulder. He stepped back and his eyes widened in surprise and fear at the same time. So that's why he felt those chills. The man standing before him wasn't an ordinary one. It was the Mist Guardian that man had caused so much pain to him and his friends.

His whole body started shaking and his trembling clenched teeth made it difficult for him to speak a single word.

He wasn't expecting such sudden meeting, and it was just after he woke up! He hadn't contemplated that he could meet _that _person, at least once, since arriving in the past.

"Da-Daemon Spade!" Tsuna shouted, feeling his mouth open in disbelief. That man, who had caused so much despair in his time, was in front of him in flesh and bones, touching his shoulder. Those eyes with so much hatred were now staring at his big innocent eyes. Although in the end, everything ended up well, and he learned that Daemon had a reason to have done what he did, he still couldn't help but feel afraid.

And no matter what, Tsuna had the feeling that he couldn't forgive Daemon even in a million years.

Incoherent thoughts passed through his mind which caused him to feel once again the strong headache, and this time, it was much worse than the previous ones.

Noticing the direction the conversation was heading, G instinctively stood a little closer to Tsuna. Alaude watched everything with critic eyes, thinking it was a weird fact that now, the annoying red haired man was standing protectively beside the Japanese boy; just as he could have done with Giotto.

That kid… Yes, he should investigate more. He won't rest until he could find a single clue about who the kid is. And that was what he would do right now.

Turning sharp on his heels, Alaude returned from where he came and left the dining room without being noticed.

On the other side of the story, Daemon tilted his head like a curious child and narrowed his blue eyes. He hadn't been told that they had visitors. How rude of Primo! And he never even told him he had a younger brother, and if he wasn't, at least the boy could be his cousin.

The shape of the hair was unmistakably the same. The boy still needed to grow a little, but when he grew another inch he would be in same height as Giotto's. The eyes, although the boy's were bigger, were practically the same as Primo's, except for the colour. And the face! He couldn't forget the face. Yes, it was like seeing Giotto as a kid.

Daemon decided. That boy was Primo's little brother. He couldn't be anything else, surely.

Though deciding to toy with the boy a little, he thought of something that would scare him a little.

"Oya, you're not Primo," he said, staring at those big caramel eyes filled with various kinds of feelings. As he could see, most of them were fear, surprise, pity, and more. A creepy smile grew on his lips. "You… Who are you?"

And with that, he narrowed his eyes even more menacingly.

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><p><strong>Gah, this chapter two is shorter than Ch. one. The next will be longer, I'm sure of it! Until there, please bear with this short chapter and don't forget, reviews are always welcomed! Also, if you think some parts were confusing because I didn't give further details, don't worry, eventually everything will make sense. Also, about the <span>phenacetin<span>, it was an analgesic very used in the end of 1800's and in the beginning of 1900's but in my story it shouldn't even exist when Giotto and his friends were alive mostly because I do believe they lived around the years 1830-1860. So please, let's just keep it this way ne?**

_Edited on 04.12.2012: thank you **BeArOcKpRiNxEsS **for beta-ing this chapter too!_


	3. May Thou, Never Lose Your Light?

**A/N: And it's the chapter three at least! It **turned out to be longer than the latest one, I'm glad. ** Sorry for the late update, I was really busy with my study and couldn't finish and update this chapter in May, as I thought I would. At least, I was able to finish it before August, lol *embarrassed* And please, bear with my grammar mistakes or misspelling if there's one, until I upload the beta-ed version (which might take a while).  
><strong>

****Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited or alerted!****

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

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><p><strong>Chapter Three: <strong>_May Thou, Never Lose Your Light?_

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><p>It was a common knowledge between the people from Vongola mansion that within the place practically none of the guardians get along that well. No one knew for certain when the trouble started at the mansion; G would say it started right after Lampo and Daemon arrived but Asari would say everything was right. Even now. Some members of Vongola's servants would say that 'young' masters should behave as adults while Lampo retorted he was only a kid. But no matter what one said, no one could deny that, recently, things were getting even worse for them. Especially for a certain red haired man.<p>

There had been a time when G could walk by the mansion and peacefully read a book without being disturbed. In the old days, there wasn't any kid near him who could possibly ask him to do stupid things such as _play with him_. Most of all, there had been a time when he actually could sleep instead of spending this precious time planning how to make up the mistakes of a certain kid. But unfortunately, that era, much like the expensive French vase Giotto had bought, was finished.

It was barely 42 hours since other person entered his life only to make it like a living hell. G was asked by Giotto to make sure that the Japanese boy, Tsunayoshi Sawada, felt like in home. He couldn't decline the task, even though he wanted to. They already had so many things to worry about; he couldn't give Giotto more worries.

G was leaving the room the boy was temporarily using when he heard a weak and shy _wait_. The brunette boy asked him, even though G could clearly see he was uncomfortable with that situation, why he didn't like him when did nothing.

Exactly! He _did _nothing. That was the point; the boy did nothing so far when he was absolutely sure he would. He didn't trust him after all.

G left the room without saying anything. The heavy door closed with a click and loud sigh echoed through the long corridor. He just stood behind the door, his back resting on the reddish wood, making a serious face.

The redhead man scratched his neck and shook his head in clear exhaustion. Just what was going on? The mansion was in a full mess since that kid came from nowhere. If it wasn't enough, they just had four more days until that stupid mafia party. _Wait!_ It wasn't four days anymore. They only had three days! They spent a whole day taking care of that brat since he was too much injured.

He hadn't been given much option. Since Knuckle was there with them the whole process, they had to stand close to the boy and watch closely his breaths. The priest insisted that the unknown boy might have been through tough things and he should need not just medical care but a more _friendly _care. In his mind, the younger one already was their fellow just because he could _feel_ it.

_Sigh._

G pressed his temples and repeated to himself to calm down. It wasn't the end of the world, well, not _yet_. It would be if they didn't attend the party in less than four days. Not to comment there still had many things to be done before they go. If only Giotto knew how much he still had to deal with, perhaps he didn't give so many tasks to be done in such short time.

Incomplete missions and lot of report to do and read, take care of the intimidating part of being Giotto's right hand man and being responsible to babysit a certain green-haired inconsequential teenager – that was his life.

The tattooed man started walking away from the room and when he was sure he was far away from there, he lit a cigarette as he leaned his back on a wall. Thinking about Lampo reminded him that he should look for the annoying brat; they had a mission to attend to in the afternoon. It was an easy mission but still, in their current state they shouldn't afford to be doing such things like patrolling the city. _Ah_, his life isn't that easy. He was very sure he would go bald before his thirties.

G massaged the bridge of the nose and threw the cigarette out the window. He started walking right away again and headed towards the kitchen, where the snot-nosed brat could possibly be.

Asari, who was in his room personally modified for him in an old fashioned Japanese style, put back on the small table an equally small pot of tea. He took a sip of the green tea he had brewed himself. After lowering the small pot, he took a deep inhale of the tea with a pleased sigh; it was a very important ceremony to him and he gently took a sip just to savour the strong flavour. Asari closed his eyes. _Ah_, everything was amazingly calm and how nice it would be if it continued like that. He lowered the cup down, putting it next to the teapot.

Calmly, the Japanese man stood up, arranging the wrinkles in his Japanese clothing and walked elegantly – even though no one was watching him – to a corner of his room. Sitting on his heels he looked at his longest sword. It had been a while since he had such an opportune time to train; he should give it a try. Sure, why not?

Asari took his sword and slowly inhaled air, shutting his eyes to focus better. In an instant it seemed like he wasn't in his room anymore, but in an uninhabited mountain in his loved country Japan.

He did as many times in his life: _take a deep breath and slowly exhale it..._

Just as when he was ready to unsheathed his sword and perfectly cut down a model made of straw which was in front of him, the door was unforgivably slid to the side with a loud 'THUMP' and a noisy voice emerged, quite frightening him.

"Oi, have you seen that brat Lampo?" G asked, peeping the inside of the old-fashioned room. The redhead man blinked as he noticed that the Japanese man was static in his spot, with the sword stop in mid air, an inch of the straw man. "Just what the _hell_ are you doing?" Inquired, elegantly raising an eyebrow.

G didn't wait for a response and answered it himself. "Forget it. It's as I can see, he is not here."

He sighed.

"Che, I have to go _hurting_ for him somewhere else then. If he is not in the kitchen, where is he?" he wondered out loud.

With that G left Asari still frozen in his spot just like that.

For the first time in his life, Asari felt like cursing the Storm Guardian.

After looking for thousand of possible places, the hot-headed man almost gave up. He got tired of asking the servants and having the same 'I'm sorry master G, I don't know' every single time as he asked _all _of them. He had been looking for Lampo for almost an hour when he heard voices coming from the dinning room. He turned left and stepped in, instantly realising the presence of the lazy Lightning Guardian.

He grinned. Nice timing, just who he has been looking for.

"_Found you, you lazy coward!_" he yelled. His expression was clearly angry, which made his face as red as his hair. If anyone asked him to express in proper words what he was feeling right now, he couldn't explain it such was his anger. Well, he didn't really hate Lampo, he just dislike him.

When his gaze fell on another teenager in the room, he felt like rolling his eyes. If it wasn't good enough having to bear the presence of the green-haired lazy boy, he had another one to take care of. That's why he's always saying to Giotto not be deceived by people so easily! As if he would trust the brat just because his long-time friend told him to do so.

"Oh. _You_." he said, slightly sounding rude to the younger one.

The redhead looked sharply at Tsuna who in turn gulped. G narrowed his eyes; he didn't like it. He didn't like being in a situation like this. That boy just seemed like a carbon copy of his childhood friend, expect for his eyes and hair's colours. More importantly, at the same time the Japanese boy looked so frightened, he looked so confident in himself. _No_, it wasn't confidence. Was it courage? No, it was more than that. It was like resolution he had seen so many times before. And again, just like Giotto.

_Interesting,_ that's what he thought as he grinned slightly.

In a fraction of minutes he was confused. Lampo was looking at the boy in complete amazement, as if he had just seen Giotto with a bottle full of candies in front of him. That was under-stable since they looked like a lot, but he didn't have to make such a fuss. But, what made him even more confused was Alaude's expression – since when that bastard had been there anyway?

The blond French man, heartless and another annoying one, narrowed his eyes as looked at the brunette boy. It wasn't as if he haven't done it before, but the way he did it...G could notice that Alaude was thinking about something really important and planning to do something unpleasant. _Poor _boy.

And again, why was that? He had to admit it, the boy _really _looked like Giotto but so what? It won't make him trust or like a bit the boy.

He wasn't really paying attention when the brunette boy came to him and _tried _to lecture him, his senses were telling him that there was another presence in the room. By looking from the corner of his left eye he noticed that Alaude sensed it too, but didn't put it in attention as much as him.

His fears were proven right when a cold voice echoed through the place as he spoke, "_Nufufufu~ Why are all the little dogs gathered here?_"

Just as he thought.

_Daemon! _He thought, gritting his teeth.

Ever since the beginning he didn't like the man, it was as if they were water and oil – they didn't match at all. Giotto once tried to resolve this problem by putting them on the same mission and it turned out in a disaster later.

_This man was seriously a pain in the ass back then, _he thought remembering the event in deep shame. That mission was a complete fail and became a taboo between the Vongola guardians. _Well, even now. _

"_Oh, Primo!_" Daemon called the 'boss' as he noticed an amount of fluffy hair between the red-haired guardian and Lampo. He was already heading towards 'Giotto' when he noticed something weird. Since when Giotto had brown hair? As if! Then…could it be he dyed his hair, but for what purpose? He decided to ask. "_Primo, since when did you darkened your hair?_"

He sensed the 'man' tense a little when he grabbed him by his shoulder and abruptly spun around to face the person who had touched him.

Both men stepped back. Daemon, because he realised that the person before him wasn't Giotto and Tsuna because he felt fear throughout his whole body. The boy defensively clenched his fists and crouched slightly, ready for any sudden attack. His feet was trembling with fear and his jaw just kept going up and down in his frustrated attempts to make any sound come out.

Tsuna gave up from his position when he cooled down his head.

His mouth that he couldn't truly feel had turned dry, and when opened it another time his voice come out a tone lower. "D-Daemon Spade!"

G, who had been quiet watching everything, decided to interferer as he sensed the strange mood between the boy and the walking watermelon – as he secretly called Daemon. It turned out to be a strange situation when G realised what he had done.

_Just why am I trying to protect him? _

Unknown to him, Alaude analysed every move each one of them did with attentive eyes. A sudden curiosity lit inside his chest and his skin burst with an unimaginable excitement; it had been ages since he felt that as intensely as now. It was getting even more interesting as the seconds passed by.

He silently excused himself and spun on his heel.

Daemon narrowed his eyes as he studied attentively the teen. How unexpected they had a visitor in such difficult time, and more than that, most probably was Giotto's relative.

A discomforting mood spread around the room as the aristocratic man took a step closer to the younger one, graciously taking a lock of his brown hair. It was weird enough to make you think crazy things by anyone's standards.

Needless to say, Tsuna was already freaking out having to put up with such discomfort for the sake of his stay in the mansion. In the time being at least. If not for this and other reasons such as _'This Daemon knows nothing_' or _'You can't interfere the history as you please_', he wouldn't be so reckoned as he was being.

Little he knows that someone was actually having some fun with the whole situation. It was pleasant that after a tiring mission Daemon found a new pet to toy with. The scared lion cub in front of him, or at least it was how he was seeing Tsuna as, looked like he was ready to cave a role on the ground to hide himself. There wasn't a better thing than deceiving people, and after all, it was his role as the Mist Guardian.

"_Oya, you are not Primo,_" he stated the obvious as he stared straight at Tsuna's honey brown eyes.

The brunette widened his eyes at that statement and his whole body started shaking again. _Oh_, it really was pleasant toying with people. Daemon's eyes narrowed even more menacingly at the thought and a creepy smile danced in the corner of his lips.

"_You…who are you?_"

* * *

><p>Giotto was having a very strange dream.<p>

His eyes shot open and he stepped out of bed barefoot. His vision still was hazy and blurred, strange forms dancing in the corner of his eyes, making him wonder if he was still sleeping but with his eyes open; he had done it before while filing his paperwork. It wasn't a very good experience because G hurried into his office room screaming about responsibility. At the time, he was still sleepy, and frustrated because he couldn't remember what the dream had been about, which made G explode in fury.

G was always a little _explosive _than him and he always gave him lectures such as _don't be so naive when dealing with people_. Honestly speaking, he had a certain pleasure in taking forward and says what was right and what was wrong for Giotto, just like a parent would do. More like a big brother though, he pondered.

Good times. Although much time has passed, he still remembers their wonderful time together as kids. No excessive worries or mafia and its danger. There were only kids play and sometimes helping people in their poor town.

The mafia boss smiled a little as he felt a good feeling of nostalgia when he remembered the old times. He stood before the door and recalled what happened seconds ago.

Panting, Giotto leaned forward to hang his head down toward his knees, feeling the hot breads of sweat rolling down his face. Although he could feel his whole body burning hot, his hands and feet were cold like stone. It had been a while since the last time he woke with his heart pounding too hard in his chest. His hands were shaking and there was a weird urgent to drink water invading him.

The blond young man buried his face in his hands and suddenly slapped himself in the face, as if to wake up from a bad dream. Actually, this was a bad dream. In his very inside he feared it could come true and he somehow wanted to do something about it. Perhaps he could confide that dream with someone; it was a good idea after all.

More than exhausting himself about some unreal, he had lots to do and one particular thing to deal with. He couldn't blame Tsunayoshi Sawada, a Japanese boy who _just_ happened to come from nowhere and refused to say anything. Although he recalled to have said he didn't want to force the boy to tell him the truth, he was curious.

Giotto was curious to know how did the kid got those wounds, why did he came to Italy and with who. He wanted to know something about his background, because he could even help him depending on what happened.

The dream still continued fresh in his mind as his hand reached the doorknob and turned it slightly to the right.

Giotto walked quietly through the corridors of the mansion he acquired a few years ago and yawned sloppy – after having ascertained that there was no one around looking at such a particular moment.

He scratched his head and gave a little laugh when he realised the state his clothes were; he was so stunned when he woke up and rushed to get out of the room that did not even realise he had to change clothes.

"I think I'm still an air-headed person as G says I am."

After changing himself, Giotto looked through the window and put a hand under his chin. It was suspiciously quiet; not the outside of the mansion, the nature was as lively as ever, but the inside of the mansion. Usually at this hour of the morning could be heard plates crashing, explosions in one of the _nearly _reformed rooms and yells. But it was _unusually _quiet: not even a drop of water falling down in the kitchen.

"Something is _definitely _happening down there," he sighed.

And definitely was.

"Will you answer me or keep staring at me like an idiot?" Daemon raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. The brunette kid had been staring at him for already a minute and said nothing. He wasn't expecting that kind of treatment of the person he thought to be Giotto's relative, the boy should be respectful to the adults and answer when they asked something.

G stepped forward before Daemon could say anything else.

"Don't you see he's scared of you? You appear like that, out of nowhere, and start asking him questions out of the blue!" he wasn't sure why he was protecting the boy since he still was unsure if he should accepted him at the mansion, but it wasn't right let him feel scared because of Daemon. The mist guardian didn't do anything that could give him the sure he wasn't in their side, actually, Daemon loved Vongola and its purpose. The problem, however, was only one: he was a fool in love.

"Sometimes I have the feeling you don't like me so much, you know?" Daemon asked the other guardian. He sat on an armchair and crossed his legs. His eyes wandered the dinning room and stopped on one particular spot. "Wasn't Alaude here?" he wondered out loud and shuttered. "Never mind. So, young boy, are you Primo's little brother or something like that?"

Tsuna opened his mouth but only to be interrupted when a voice came from behind him.

"I was thinking where everyone was, so…are you two having a friendly chat with Tsunayoshi boy here?" Giotto appeared in Tsuna's side and smiled to the two guardians. For a second, Tsuna thought he had seen a sad expression appear in G's face, but as soon as it appeared, it faded away.

"Something like that," Daemon answered, smiling.

Smiling. Tsuna had just seen Daemon Spade _smiling _to Giotto. It wasn't a smirk; it was a real and friendly smile. So it was true, Daemon didn't go against Primo right from the start.

"I was asking the little boy here _who _he is, just that," he completed and looked at G, rudely pointing at him. "But your watch dog over there, overreacted like always."

A vein popped in G's forehead and he slowly turned to face the other.

"And I was just saying you were scaring the kid because of your face, which is, undoubtedly scary."

This time Daemon decided to stand up and walk straight to the other guardian, stopping right in front of the red haired man.

"You have a ridiculous red tattoo on the right side of your face," he said slowly, and this time, he smirked.

G narrowed his eyes and bit his bottom lip. He opened his mouth but nothing came out; he was out of ideas. He internally cursed and began to think of new insults. This battle Daemon had won, but not the war.

Tsuna blinked. Was it a hallucination or Daemon Spade and G were quarrelling like kids? It was completely childish, and quite funny. He took a hand to his mouth and laughed a bit, drawing Giotto's attention to him. Giotto shook his head and placed a hand on his shoulder for a moment and squeezed, giving him a small smile right after.

"They've been like this for quite a while now," he justified the other two men's actions and looked at them with a light in the eyes. In truth, rather than childish their way of quarrelling, it was peaceful to watch. It gave a feeling of real family, in which you could have a support whenever you needed. And the most important: it was way better than the family the 'future' Daemon wanted to built for the Vongola.

Tsuna felt himself smiling at the scene as well.

"But it's better this way, right?"

* * *

><p>After a disastrous lunch with all the Vongola guardians, and Giotto swore that it happened every single day, Asari took Tsuna to a walk in the garden while Lampo and G prepared their things to go to the town.<p>

It was three o'clock when G and Lampo went out of the mansion for their mission. They walked through the city and greeted the civilians from time to time. After doing everything they were supposed to, they stopped at their third destination that day, a tailor, and entered in. The small bell above it, at the same height as the door, rang melodiously as they passed by the doorway and waited at the entrance of the shop. There was no one to be seen and G even wondered if there was anyone in the store, but of course, the owner couldn't have left it open.

Someone cried out from the back room that he would be there in an instant and they waited, much for the impatient Lampo, who already complained of hunger. Moments later an old man, in his sixties, dark hair and some gray locks, went through a door and pulled up the sleeves of his white shirt and greeted them with a bright smile.

"Mister G and young mister Lampo! What a pleasure to have you two here!" the old man turned around the counter to observe them better. "Young mister Lampo has grown up to a noticeable young man!"

G raised his right eyebrow and swallowed the laughter.

_A noticeable young man? Is that even a compliment?_ He thought in amusement.

"And mister G is as charming as ever."

G coughed awkwardly.

"Thank you."

The man clapped his hands and looked expectantly to G and then Lampo. The younger remained silent, and with a bored face on. The teenager didn't get why he had to do such boring things along with the red octopus head. If Giotto wanted to punish him for breaking the expensive French vase from the nineteenth century, he should have done something a little unpleasant.

The old man cleared his throat.

"So, to what I have the pleasure of your visit, may I ask?" he asked. "But please, forgive my rudeness. Come on in."

G nodded and followed the man to a second back room, with Lampo following suit.

"I presume you, Mr. Franco, has received our request for new suits and I just came to make sure that they will be ready in time." G informed in a professional manner.

"Oh, yes!" Mr. Franco gestured wildly to the next room, his studio, where all requests were made and stored, and returned to look at the red-haired young man. "Your new suits will be ready promptly. Please, do not worry. I'll even take them to your mansion."

"No need," G shook his head. "I myself will be here to take them. You don't need to risk yourself being seen delivering something in front of our mansion."

The old man green eyes shone in pure admiration and he took G hands, shaking them fervently.

"Mister G is kind as ever. Thank you very much, sir!"

G simply shook his head, giving a small smile in thanks.

"Still speaking in business. Would you send one of you assistants to our mansion? We have an unexpected visitor who needs to take some measures."

The older tilted his head and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"An unexpected visitor?" Mr. Franco echoed.

"Yes," answered G sighing. He still hadn't accepted the current situation. "The person…he will be most likely be staying at the mansion for a while."

After that, Lampo and G went on a patrol around the city when they heard screams coming from not so afar from where they were. Both guardians looked at each other and silently agreed in coming, even though Lampo was more interested in what was in that direction – a delicatessen.

The screams were getting louder when after five minutes running to the ends of the city, which lead to some poor houses and a mountain.

"_Someone, help!_" A woman's voice screamed.

The two Vongola guardians stopped running when they entered the longest shopping boulevard in the city. There were dozens of shops and bars throughout the area, as well as florists, confectionaries and bakeries. That was the local where almost everything happened. Unfortunately, there was no such thing as wealth or anything that could make you think of plenty. It was a poor town, like most cities of the Italian Kingdom.

The largest class of people in the nearly unified Italian country at the time just happened to the poorest – the farmers and the labourers. But even those who were a little richer were having bad times in the last years. The poorest still lived in small houses with probably one room, without running water and proper meals during day. Nevertheless, that was an area considered abundant, rich, compared with the rest of the city. There still was some colour in there.

After getting some air, G ran his gaze down the street. There was a group of people gathered in front of one of the most popular bars known in the region; G was one of the regulars of the place in the past. He realised that people were not having a normal conversation. One person, a woman, whose hair was terribly messy, was speaking desperately pointing to the mountain.

"Let's go there." G informed walking towards the confusion.

"Why would I, the great Lampo, follow your orders and come along with you?" the teen asked reluctantly going too.

The other didn't give much attention and just continued running.

"Look! It's mister G and mister Lampo! They are coming toward us!"

When G stopped in front of the group, the young lady who was talking to the people in front of the bar, raised her hand to her mouth and blushed. She had heard of the guardians of Vongola, a mafia group who protected the town, but never had seen one of them in person. She was new in town, since she only came because her younger sister was getting married. Her heart calmed down after she remembered she had a husband, who was good to her.

_"_Apologise me for interrupting your conversation like this but, may I ask what is wrong?" G asked the group after Lampo stopped at his side.

The younger one rolled his eyes. He didn't know what pissed him off the most, if it was when G yelled at him through the whole mansion just because he haven't done his simple missions in a more satisfactory way or if it was when he acted like a educated person if front of others. Hypocrite.

A man in his barely thirties stepped forward. He had good clothes but they were too big for him, which is why it gave him a much younger appearance, and his shoes were scuffed and muddy. A few strands of his brown hair were stuck on the forehead because of the sweat in his face and he was unshaven. His slightly tanned skin made his green eyes even more enhanced. When he spoke, G was sure he had less than thirty years – most likely he was a 25-years-old man.

"This young lady," the man pointed to the woman with dirty blond hair who blushed when G looked at her. "She just said she heard noises, loud noises, coming from the mountain. Minutes after she saw men in black running after a boy with strange clothes_._"

G looked suspiciously at the woman one more time before his eyes fell on Lampo.

"Men in black? And moreover, a boy with strange clothes?" He wondered out loud, a hand under his chin. Suddenly an idea popped inside his head. He should have thought about that sooner. G looked up and gave a small smile to the people staring at him with hopeful eyes. "I'll deal with this problem. Please, stay at rest."

"Let's go," he said to Lampo, who even reluctantly, agreed and started running in a fast speed.

They climbed the steep hill silently, listening to any sound that might indicate a sign of struggle. The hills were growing steeper and the leaves scattered in the wind. In the distance, three hundred feet below them, the sun glistened off a small lake. The poor lighting where they were, in the middle of the forest, made it hard to search for any kind of clue that would indicate that people had been there not long ago.

_"She saw men in black running after a boy with strange clothes."_ G remembered.

"Why do I have this bad feeling?_" _he voiced his thoughts unaware of the glares he just received from Lampo. The younger one had kept his eyes on the other after he noticed the silence. Normally, G would be complaining about how he hated when unexpected things happened, mostly after a tiring mission they just had.

"Did you say something?" asked the younger in his always-bored tone. Maybe the other man was just unusual quiet.

G looked at him in surprise, ashamed he had just been found out talking to himself out loud, and looked other way. Lampo could see a tiny flash of red growing in G's cheeks, though.

"No. I did not," he said faking his shame in a professional manner of lying. He was an expert already. When dealing with younger people, G _just _happened to learn that. It becomes pretty useful in times like that. "You're just hearing things, like an old man."

Lampo widened his eyes at the comment. He was about to say something but G didn't give him time to complain about how mean he was being and just continued running with all his strength.

The sun was setting when they heard an explosion from the west. G quickened his pace and ran towards where the sound had come from. With the help of his sharp hearing he could say that there was four people struggling.

"Let's hurry!" G shouted to Lampo.

The explosions were getting louder as they got near to the place. The rocks and thick roots above the ground made the running even more difficult and the drizzle falling on their heads did not help at all. Lampo was ready to complaint about his sore feet when a shot passed an inch from his face, going straight to a tree. Coward as he was, the teenager fell down and he winced. G looked in all directions, looking for where that bullet had come from when his eyes captured two figures coming towards him. A third person could be seen in a clearing.

"Who are you people, shooting without warning?" G asked in pure anger.

His eyes scanned the area and found the fourth person, lying on the ground, with blood running out of the mouth. He was smaller than him, a boy with around 16-17 years, barely a kid, with several injuries all over the body. The blood stained in his shirt, that was white before, was fresh which meant _that _people made it.

"Trespassing the Vongola family's territory, causing such commotion without a previous warning, and furthermore, hurting weak people like this? It is unacceptable."

For a moment he thought he sounded like Alaude and mentally rolled his eyes. That wasn't the right moment to try to sound cool. He took his gun out; since that wasn't an official mission gave by Giotto to him, there wasn't a reason to use his bow and arrow on such people. The three men seemed surprised for a moment but did nothing.

"I assume you know the price for it?" he asked in a soft voice, though his expression was as cold as it could possibly be. He glanced at the boy lying on the ground at narrowed his eyes. G was pretty much satisfied to see the men flinching from the corner of his eye.

The green-haired teenager, who was still sat on the ground, slowly got up to his feet and stood behind G. The red haired man gave a quick look at the younger guardian and immediately turned his gaze to the troublemakers. He had seen those three men somewhere around the city a month ago, but couldn't seriously remember any more than that. G just had the feeling he couldn't involve Lampo in that fight.

"Hey, I need you to do something for me. Go back to the mansion and report what's happening here," he explained in calm voice, taking a step forward. "Quick!"

The younger seemed frozen in his spot but as soon as he head the other hurry him, he started running downhill without saying anything.

But the plan couldn't be perfect.

"Oh, not so fast! What made you think you're going to run away, boy?" a man with a red haired beard, but brown hair, shouted and started shooting in Lampo's direction. The lightning guardian squeaked and quickened his pace. In an instant, G was in front of the man blocking his way to shot.

"And what made you think you'll have the time to think about that brat?" he smirked.

Ten minutes later the three men were lying on the floor. G didn't kill them, but they won't wake up for a while, and it will be time enough to take that kid out of there.

He walked towards the boy and crouched beside him, verifying his state. The boy was alive; a few scratches in his pale face and despite the amount of blood in his shirt, he hasn't lost much blood. He didn't have many injuries. At least not fatal ones.

The younger one was leaning on the ground, coughing blood from his mouth. When he finished doing it, G cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the boy to himself. G caught a glimpse of the boy's face, which was partially shaded because of the hair.

"_I will help you, so don't worry,_" he assured the youngster. It was not his habit to smile to strangers, even more in a situation like that, but he made an effort and gave the other an awkward smile. "_I am not a suspicious person._"

G was aware that saying you're not a suspicious person could make people think you _really _are a suspicious person, but it wasn't the time to think about those things.

_This voice…! _the boy thought, widening his eyes.

He made an effort to sit down and looked up. Sunlight sparkled on his light hair. G blinked repeatedly and tried to keep his eyelids half-closed to minimize the light from entering his eyes. Although the boy's hair was wet because of the drizzle, he still could see the exact hair's colour. It matched perfectly with the boy's eyes.

The silver-haired boy with emerald eyes glanced at him with veracious eyes that could send him a shiver down the spine _if_ he wasn't only a boy.

"_Is this some kind of a bad joke or am I bad dreaming?_" he asked in a hoarse voice, although his question was more for himself than to the other. He had instinctively spoke in Italian.

The boy scratched his neck and looked around.

_I must have gone insane_, the boy thought, bringing his hands up to his head in despair. _What's he doing here? This can't be real. He must be an U.M.A.!_

G became alert by the boy's actions and stretched out a hand to help. The boy harshly refused his help to stood up and leaned on his left bow. He closed his eyes for some seconds and when he opened them, they were full of confusion.

"_Are you alright?_" G asked in concern.

The younger just shook his head and looked up at the so familiar red haired man. G nodded with his head and decided to ask more.

"_Where it hurts? Do you have a broken bone?_" his voice was quieter than usual. Normally, he would not be as helpful to someone he barely knew.

The boy repeated the action and shook his head again.

"_Hm, I don't have any,_" he answered, carefully touching with a finger to each of his injuries. G was sure the boy was lying; he possibly couldn't be fine. But the younger one suddenly got up, surprising the other.

G frowned and raised an eyebrow.

"_Where are you going?_" surely the boy couldn't be thinking on walking with all those injuries. Although they were not that serious, still, they needed to be treated. "_You're not in the condition to push yourself too hard! Let me take you to a place where you will have this injuries cleaned up and bandaged._"

The silver-haired boy reluctantly agreed after seeing that he couldn't walk straight without any support.

"By the way, what's your name brat? I think I'll have to go to your parents later and tell them you're fine."

The boy's eyebrow twitched by being called a brat, but did nothing because he didn't have much energy left.

"_Hayato Gokudera,_" he answered with a proud expression, puffing his chest. He smirked a little, that old man was the same back then, when they met him in their own time.

G placed Gokudera's left arm on his shoulder and pushed him up.

"_Nice, another Japanese,_" G complained under his breath and started walking with the boy. "_Mine's G, only G, pleasure._"

_Yeah, I already know, _Gokudera said to himself in thoughts and rolled his eyes.

It all happened very fast. Gokudera caught a glimpse of a shadow behind them and only had time to warn the older guardian.

"_G!_"

* * *

><p>Tsuna turned around and looked to the city's direction. He was sure he just heard a familiar voice, but there was nothing to be heard expect for the sound of nature and the sound of the city.<p>

"What's wrong, Tsunayoshi-kun?" Asari asked when the boy suddenly turned to the other way with a confused expression in his face. "You're pale! Did something happen?"

"I-It's nothing," Tsuna shook his head and smiled a little. They started walking again and Asari pointed to the tea tables, asking him if he would like to drink some tea. He agreed, smiling again. He was almost sure that anything was wrong; it was just a trick his mind was playing on him. It _had _to be it.

* * *

><p>G strongly pressed his left arm that had been shot and cursed under breath. They had taken a long time to get out of there and the 'rebels' had already waked up. The three men were pointing their guns at them, smirking evilly. He was sure now, he had met those three men before, and it had be a hell of a <em>meeting.<em>

He was caught off guard when Gokudera stepped forward and made a cold expression as he looked at the men.

"_I will take them down!_" he bravely shouted.

G almost laughed, that is, if they were not in a dangerous situation. Somehow, he found the boy much like himself, not just by his appearance, but mostly by his personality. The boy was, or so it seemed to be, impatient and didn't like to depend on others. Always willing to take the lead. But that wasn't the time for a boy of his age to go acting all cool.

"_Hum?_" He muttered looking at the barely conscious silver-haired boy in front of him. "_I'll acknowledge that you've got some guts, brat."_

For a moment Gokudera thought G had agreed with his suggestion, but just for a moment. He knew the man wasn't that weak.

"_But, no. I will do it myself,_" he completed, smirking at the younger. "_Like a hell will let you take the front and have all the fun for yourself._"

Gokudera coughed twice before saying, "_Hah? What are you saying, old man?_ _Wa-Wait!_"

The bomber coughed one more time, trying to stand still.

"_I have…I haven't lost yet! L-Let me defeat him…If not, Juudaime will be in danger! You didn't hear what they said before, but I did!_"

Gokudera was with his whole body shaking, supporting himself with his bloody hands on his weak knees. G sighed and shook his head in disbelief. He wasn't expecting such an idiotic act coming from a serious boy who seemed value this _Juudaime _guy life.

"_Give up, you idiot!_" he said, turning his back to the poor boy, who was still with his body shaking. "_This stupid fight is nothing worth dying for._" He walked to the enemy looking at them in expectation, but Gokudera grabbed his right arm. "_Get off me, brat!_"

The grip on the sleeve of his shirt became tighter. Gokudera didn't give a damn about G's advice, he did what he thought to be the right at the moment; he looked up at the first Storm Guardian with his emerald eyes filled with determination and gave him a grin.

"_Idiot! It's not a stupid fight, old man!_" G's right eye twisted after being called an old man. How rude of that brat, he was in his nearly twenties!

"_It's my duty as a right hand man to throw away my life for Juudaime!_" He shouted unaware of the angry look in G's face.

G spun on his heel just to face Gokudera with a serious face, and despite the circumstances, that was what caught Gokudera off guard and made him step back.

"_Is this Juudaime guy worth putting your life at stake?_" G asked narrowing his eyes in a dangerous way. But before Gokudera could answer, he continued, "_Is him really worth to you die for him with no hesitation?_"

Gokudera grinned his teeth. Such stupid question.

With his eyes looking straight at G and answering as much serious as the red-haired man, he replied, "_Of course he is! Juudaime's freaking strong, he's the best person I know and I'm willing to die for him!_"

G frowned deeply. For a moment he thought he had just seen a replica of himself, but of a few years ago. He recognized he still was hot headed when it comes to Primo's safety, but he had to restrain himself a bit. And that boy was the same; he was willing to die for someone else's sake without thinking about the consequences.

"_I am not asking you if you're willing to die for him, I'm asking you whether that guy would be willing to die for you as well!_"

Gokudera frowned.

"_Wha-?_"

That simple, yet complicated question pissed him off. No one had the right to subjugate his boss. Not even the first Storm Guardian of Vongola.

"_That's beside the point!_" He shouted angrily. His blood was boiling, still remembering those words said by G; Gokudera wasn't even thinking straight when he answered, "_Even if Juudaime doesn't die for me, I can still die for him!_" With that said, he coughed again. They were so engrossed in the discussion that didn't even realised that the enemies were preparing themselves to run away.

G walked towards Gokudera, grabbing him by his collar as he sent him a pure cold glare. Gokudera vainly tried to get out of the strong grasp but failed. The other man was much stronger than him and probably he had been in more battles than he. It was useless to try something in that deplorable state while he did not even know how strong G was.

"_IDIOT!_" G yelled, making Gokudera close his eyes in fear. He was shocked, of course. "_How can you say something completely idiot without thinking! There are no such things as useless or unimportant lives! If there is a fight where life is at risk then they should risk their lives equally!_"

He paused, getting some air. He remembered that no much time ago he did the same thing and that he would never forget the expression of pain and anger in Giotto's face. Most of all, G couldn't let that boy do the mistake as him.

"_How do you think this guy would be if he knew you have sacrificed your life for his own wellbeing?_" Gokudera was speechless while his surprised look widened as he heard G's words. He was only trying to get rid of those people who could go after his boss, his _first_ friend_, _but he could only end up hurting this person doing so. "_You might think it's manly to throw away your life that easily, but it is not! You're only being a fucking idiot who's lazy enough not to come up with a good plan!_"

Gokudera tried to say something but not a single word came out from his mouth. But G continued lecturing him.

"_You might think it's good as long as you protect him with the enemies but it's only an unthinkable act!_" He continued, yelling these words, which cut Gokudera's heart and was making him tremble even more. "_But you're only protecting yourself of seeing your boss hurt! Did you get it, you asshole!_" G released Gokudera's collar and sighed, calming himself. "_I'll say it again…who do you think will be more hurt if you die? Well, that's it if this person is as you say he is._"

Gokudera widened his eyes in realisation. His mouth trembled and he gritted his teeth, both his hands closed into fists. He was so absorbed with the idea of not letting anyone lay down a hand on Tsuna that he had not even realised that he would be the one who would hurt him more in the end.

"_J-Juudaime…Juudaime will…_" he answered, looking down, completely ashamed to look at the other man.

G smiled slightly and put a hand on Gokudera's shoulder making him look up at him.

"_That's right and that's why you should valuable your own life, not throw it away like a priceless thing._" Gokudera knew from the very start that Tsuna wouldn't like to see him dead, he knew he would be the most hurt for his death and that he would blame himself for such happening. And most of all, Gokudera knew that even though G had angered him, the red-haired man was right. "_It's the same thing for me. My friend, Giotto, wouldn't like to see me throwing my life so easily because of him. He would like to see me fighting with all I have._"

"_Yes,_" Gokudera muttered and gave a small smile as he thought how happy Tsuna would be when he meets him. If he wasn't mistaken, then he will surely meet the brunette. "_Juudaime's the same kind of person as Primo-san._" He said this last past inaudible, so G didn't listen it.

G sighed tiredly and stretched out a helping hand to the youngster. Gokudera accepted the offered hand and was sharply yanked to his feet by the other. He took a second looking at his surroundings, a sly smile curving up the corner of his mouth as he came to a conclusion. So, it all ended well.

"_And speaking of Giotto, he might be worried by now,_" he wondered out loud, looking to the direction in which the mansion could be. G shook his head, smirking. "_He's such a sentimental man._"

Meanwhile, in ten thousand yards away, a sneeze was heard in the office room of Vongola Primo. The blond young man wiped his nose and sighed, a chill had just gotten down his spine a second ago and the window wasn't even open. He pulled his winter coat closer to his body and went back to signing some papers.

"I think I'm getting a cold."

* * *

><p><strong><strong>Keep in mind that I cannot tell you what's gonna happen in the next chapter, tell you what's the mystery behind Giotto's sadness or even tell you how Tsuna time travelled or even tell you when it supposedly happened. All that questions will be answered when the time comes, I assure you, so keep reading. And thank you <span>Sylvia-san<span> for pointing out my mistake in the last chapter, I fixed it already.  
><strong>**

****Please let me know what you think about this chapter :)****


	4. The Storm is Coming

**Four months. That's what took me to write this (ridiculous) chapter. Seriously, why am I so lazy? **

* * *

><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four: <strong>_The Storm is Coming_

* * *

><p>Even before he meet by coincidence with G, Gokudera already had his suspicious that he wasn't in the present. At least, he wasn't on his own time period.<p>

He woke in a dark alley of a street stinking of poor quality drinks, not sure where he was, lying in the middle of the street trash. Luckily, the alley was completely empty; there was no one around. That is, if you could ignore the huge rats that ran from one side to another in search of food.

After checking the ramshackle place, Gokudera struggled to his feet and rubbed his eyes, trying to think. He wiped the dirt off his clothes and looked all around, wondering how he got there.

"Where am I?" it was a cliché question, but it was the only thing the could of at the moment.

His green eyes narrowed as he checked once again the place in an attempt to remember why he was there. Gokudera was sure that he'd slept in his warm bed last night, and even that he had sanded Uri's nails. He closed his eyes again and tried to think back…and the only think he remembered was…

A face appeared in front of him. "What are you thinking about, brat?" G asked, dragging him out to reality.

Gokudera had forgotten for a moment he was in the past and suppressed the urge of calling G a ghost. As an impact, the latest events hit him. He was in the past and coincidentally he met with G, the storm guardian of the first generation of Vongola.

They were coming down the mountain when he found himself trying to remember what had happened earlier that day. The silence was embarrassing enough to make Gokudera prefer to occupy his time thinking about _how _he had come to the past. His mind was blank; occasionally if he had a great effort, he could remember flashes of what happened but nothing worth that helped him remember the incident.

"Nothing," he lied, looking directly at the older man. He gave a little cough and looked up. Dark clouds were pilling up and the weather began to cool.

G raised an eyebrow and shrugged, resuming to walk.

"Let's hurry, it seems that the weather is changing."

For the rest of the way, they remained in complete silence. G tried to help Gokudera when he groaned in pain as they walked, but the younger was too stubborn and refused to accept help.

The storm came down once they set foot in the city. People ran from one side to another, trying to protect themselves from the strong wind and the pieces of objects flying in all directions. Gokudera could swear that even with the loud noise the strong wind caused, he heard G cursing. Suddenly, the red-haired man turned to him and caught him by his left arm, ignoring his angry protests.

They ran as fast as possible and only stopped when they were inside of an old building that smelled of mildew. The wooden floor was worn and the walls were lined with yellow wallpaper, completely stained in a weird dark color. The lobby was so huge that you could put fifty grand pianos in there and there would still be space left, but the place lacked furniture. Despite the poor lighting of the place, a few light bulbs, and above all, small, made the environment become even colder. The reception was empty, except for a single person sitting behind the counter, who ate bread that seemed harder than a stone.

Gokudera tried to ignore the strong smell of something rotten the place had, but he ended up twisting his nose unconsciously. G noted and stepped closer to him.

"Can you try bear with it until the storm ends? We have to stay here for now," he whispered and turned to face the bearded man, who was behind the counter, smiling at them. "This _hotel _was the closest. I had no choice."

_Hotel?! You're freaking kidding me! This place looks more like a cave than a hotel! _Gokudera thought as he started walking towards the counter, as well as G.

Minutes later the two sat on opposite beds in a room ridiculously small that only fit two beds and an old cabinet. G threw himself on the bed and sighed heavily when looking at the ceiling. Gokudera thought it would be silent the whole time, given the awkward silence between them until now, when he heard the first syllable coming out of the older man's mouth.

"How are your injuries?" he asked, looking at Gokudera.

Gokudera looked at himself and for the first time he noticed his deplorable state. His shirt was almost all stained with blood and the sleeves were torn. His face should not be much better, but nothing bothered him more than his right ankle that looked like it was cracked. In all, there were only minor injuries.

"Nothing serious," he said touching his chest checking for more serious injuries. His face and arms, but mostly his hands, were all scratched up. Fortunately, no bones seemed to be broken but he couldn't tell for sure. He could tell that some of his injuries were older than others, some of five days ago or even possibly older. Gokudera could feel a pain in his stomach as if he were hit by a truck, but he didn't need to tell about that one too.

"It's only my right ankle," he continued. "It looks like I will need help bandaging it."

G nodded and got up from his bed when he heard a knock at the door. He walked without haste and opened the door elegantly. His arms stretched out to receive an old wooden box and thanked the old woman with a slight nod, and shut the door immediately. G placed the wooden box on top of his temporary bed and opened it, revealing organized and clean bandages and other first aid kit instruments.

He started clearing the blood of the boy's face and then began to treat the worse injury. His hands moved skillfully as he wielded the scissors and bandages around the boy's cracked ankle, as if he had done it thousands of times during his life so far. G put an improvised support beside the ankle and wrapped a second round of bandages around the boy's leg.

G looked at his work with wrinkled brow and nodded to himself. "Not as good as the bandages Knuckle would do, but this is will do for now."

"…Thanks…" Gokudera thanked G quietly but the other could hear and gave a slight nod. G could notice that the boy, as well as himself, didn't like to thank people and owe to them.

The redhead looked out the window and noticed that the storm was getting a little weaker and thanked mentally. If he had to stay any longer with that boy, who looked so much like himself, he would rather have to fill out all the paperwork in place of Giotto. And he would never prefer to do this in a normal situation, but unfortunately that wasn't one.

"Where are we going next?" Gokudera asked, breaking the silence between them.

G looked at him with an arched eyebrow. "Next? Of course I'm going to rest and you should do the same as well, _brat_."

Gokudera's right eye twitched and he cracked a smile.

_He's getting on my nerves._

* * *

><p>The storm had just started when Lampo made if safe in the mansion. None of the guards asked why the hurry seeing how distressed the young and lazy guardian was. Lampo was lucky to find the person he was looking for soon after crossing the lobby. Giotto was resting in the tearoom while reading a book.<p>

"Primo!" he shouted, running toward him.

For a moment, Giotto was scared. He thought he had been caught red-handed. He, after all, was doing something he should not. In the list of important things to do, even in the present moment they were in, G would say that Giotto had maximum responsibility of having to fill out paperwork. But for Giotto, a little break would not kill anyone. Or would it?

That was when he noticed it was only Lampo running at him.

Giotto rolled his eyes and closed the book, feeling more relaxed this time. "Lampo, how many times have I told you that you _can_ call me by my name and—"

His eyes widened and he almost left the book he was holding drop to the floor. For a moment, it crossed his mind the worst case scenario and refused with all his might that something like that could have happened. He wouldn't dare. G had promised. He would never…

"…What happened?" he stammered as he looked at Lampo. The youngest was with his clothes all dirty and wet and his gaze was of someone who did not have good news.

Lampo heaved and needed time before he could answer. His right hand went down to his face, removing the dirt and water dropping in his eyes and then did the same in the mouth area. Giotto rushed up and offered him a glass of water, that was untouched on the coffee table beside him, and Lampo readily accepted it drinking all its content instantly.

"Problems…G…fight…" it was all that came out of his mouth before he fell asleep on the floor.

Those three words only made the concerns the blond man had, gave a jump straight to heaven. He ran a hand through his hair and with the other he pressed his temples. In a way he was relieved. From what sounded, nothing so serious had happened to G. But still…

"More problems…"

* * *

><p>Tsuna sat on his legs, the east way, and stared at each corner of the room with a wonder look. It was peaceful and it reminded him of his homeland, which he had a feeling of not seeing for years. Not much time had passed, but even so it was all so nostalgic.<p>

"It's a pity that the storm has come on such inopportune time, isn't it?" Asari asked as he put two cups of green tea on the small tea table, along with a plate of rice crackers. The older boy stared at the injured boy and gave him a small smile. "It's comfortable, don't you think?"

Tsuna looked at him in surprise and gave a slight nod; he was embarrassed at being caught looking around so blatantly. He took a sip of his tea in an attempt to mask the red color growing in his cheeks.

"Would you mind telling me what happened? How you got here or why did you have those terrible injures on you?"

The brunette lowered his head and stared at his cup of tea. He poked at its surface a melody created at the moment and remained silent for some time before speaking.

"I…honestly don't remember exactly what happened," his voice echoed higher than normal in the small room. "The only recent thing I remember is waking up in the middle of a forest, hearing shots coming from all directions."

He had to be careful. Any wrong step and his efforts of hiding he was from the future would go down the drain. But, it wasn't a lie he didn't remember exactly what happened. His memories were a bit blurry.

Asari gave a small nod and took a sip of his tea too. Tsuna was playing with his fingers, deep in thought.

_I absolutely can't tell them about the future, _he thought nervously. _But I also need help! Ah!, if only Reborn was here!_

He froze at the thought and quickly shook his head. A shiver went up his spine. What was he thinking? If Reborn were with him, he would certainly blame him for everything that was happening! At this time he'd have been punched, kicked, or even worse just because of this. Indeed, the situation would be worse if the hitman was with him. He was fine the way it was. However, a sense of guilt crossed his chest.

"You should have appeared in middle of the battle between Lampo-kun and the men from the other family," Asari reflected giving a slight nod to the thought. "But thanks to this, we avoided any consequences to both Lampo and the other family. I'm grateful."

Tsuna froze and blushed a little. "You don't need to thank me in any way, Asari-san!"

Asari laughed, causing the brunette to instantly feel more comfortable and he relaxed his shoulders. His heart calmed down a bit and his breathing became less hectic. In an instant all of his worries had ceased, even if momentarily, and everything that went through his head was finishing his lunch quietly.

_Strange_, he thought.

Tsuna had never felt that way unless he was with his friend and rain guardian Yamamoto. The presence of rain guardian of the first generation, Ugetsu Asari, was as refreshing as Yamamoto's.

"Tsunayoshi-kun, please do not hesitate to talk to me if you have any problems," Asari said with the calmest voice possible. "It's like they say: friends are for situations like this, no?"

The boy was speechless. He didn't think Asari would be so easy to get along with, and yet he was thinking about troublesome things instead of enjoying himself even for a moment. Even if for now, Tsuna could feel at home.

Tsuna smile broadly and laughed. "Sure! Friends are for situations like this!"

His smile remained on his lips for several seconds. A comforting warmth burned in his chest. Of course he missed his home, his country, his friends and even Reborn. However, Tsuna knew that for now, while Reborn and all his friends in his own time didn't know how to bring him back, he would be in good hands while he was with Vongola Primo's family.

"Ah, please, you can call me Tsuna."

And that was the beginning of a peaceful stay in the past with the mafia family of his ancestor. What he didn't know, however, was that his stay would not be as peaceful as he thought and wished for.

Asari smiled slightly before returning to get serious, putting a hand under his chin, as if he pondered on something very important.

"But really, you were lucky to have found Lampo there, Tsuna-kun. I wouldn't know what would have happened to you if you had appeared in the middle of the group we are fighting against."

This thought made Tsuna's stomach squirm. He would probably have to resort to force because those people didn't seem very reasonable to have a civilized conversation. Then, he noticed that Asari's eyes were narrowed and he whispered things.

"…even more if they _thought_ they are brothers…they would cause a big problem to Giotto…even to _him_ as well…"

_Brothers? Primo-san? But more importantly…who are they? _Tsuna bit his bottom lip and not realizing it, the words actually escaped his lips before he knew it. When he realized it, it was too late.

"Who are they?" he asked and immediately regretted doing so as he noticed it'd been a bad idea. Asari looked at him with wide eyes, as if he had just said something he should not and Tsuna felt an urgent to change the meaning of his question.

"I-I mean, why do you fight them?" he noticed that the older man's shoulders relaxed and he seemed a little relieved. Maybe he had touched a topic he should have not and Asari didn't seem to like it; no, he was sure of it. It was like he had hit a sore spot.

Asari gave a little sigh and said, "Who knows. I would also like to know."

"Hah!?"

Tsuna almost fell backwards. Almost. It made no sense. The expression Asari had done was almost comical if not for the kind of conversation they were having. He had always thought that Asari was a person who would think carefully enough before answering a question so reckless; a cautious person, or it was how Tsuna would describe him, but he looked even more like Yamamoto than he imagined. The image he had of Asari had changed completely.

"H-How so?" he asked, wondering what kind of response he could be given now.

The rain guardian gave a sad smile and rested his head on his right hand, looking vaguely at his cooled tea on the table. For a moment, Tsuna noticed a shadow of sadness in the swordsman's eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

"It's a tragic story, this is how triggered the fight between us. A tragic story." His voice was weak and his eyes were far away, as if remembering something that happened many years ago. He seemed not to notice he was speaking with another person, but rather he was speaking to himself. "Since then, they have thrown stones as we watch our flowers dying helplessly."

Tsuna didn't ask anything else after that and neither Asari, as he seemed like he wouldn't say anything more but planting mystery in his words. However, Tsuna knew that things were very bad on Primo's side.

_Just…what is happening here? _

* * *

><p>Gokudera looked impatiently every second at the storm guardian of the first generation. His green eyes seemed to thrown flames every time he looked at the oldest, and on the other hand, G seemed not to notice it, and if he did he could not care less.<p>

The silver-haired boy was about to get up out of bed and explode bad words at G when the other man moved out of his bed.

G looked up to the window and sighed relived, "The storm stopped, let's go."

Gokudera raised an eyebrow, but got up from the bed just like G.

After returning the room's key they had borrowed, they walked in the city's streets, which gradually became packed with people, until G decided to stop in front of a clothing store. Gokudera frowned but didn't question anything, at least not out loud.

"Come in," G ordered in a sharp voice when they stopped in front of the entrance door of the men's clothing store. Gokudera narrowed his eyes, but he did as he was told.

The interior of the store was small, cramped with glass counters and mannequins with pieces of cloth thrown over. There were huge bookcases that went up to the high ceiling, which were full of fabrics and readymade garments. There was a lady on top of a ladder, arranging a beautiful dark blue fabric that was on the last shelf. Gokudera had to look away when he realized that he could see a little underneath the young woman's dress.

Realizing that there were customers waiting for her, the woman came down the ladder and brushed the hem of her skirt. She put on a polite smile and conveniently bowed her head slightly before asking them:

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" her voice was sweet and low, like a lady's should be.

G pointed to Gokudera with his thumb. "Get me a pair of pants and a simple long-sleeve white shirt. Look for one according to his size. Get him a belt too."

His eyes went down to Gokudera's all-star. "As for the shoes…he doesn't need it."

"What?" Gokudera choked. G started at him and returned to face the woman.

"That's all."

The young woman gave a quick glance at Gokudera and a slight nod.

Gokudera, on the other hand, didn't seem too happy. A small shade of red colored his cheeks and he seemed reluctant when the Miss attendant called him to try some clothes.

"I couldn't take you along with those shattered clothes. Giotto would panic at the first glance and I wouldn't be able to withstand more pressure on me."

Within two minutes they left the store, and now, according to G, Gokudera was decently dressed and without any indication that he was with injuries all over his body.

"How's the foot?" G asked casually as soon as they left the readymade garments store. "The bandages will not last long, furthermore the effects from the medicine I gave you is wearing off. We need to get there as soon as possible, before you pass out from pain in the middle of the street. And this is the last thing I would want now."

Gokudera looked away, feeling a bit angry. It wasn't like he was _that _injured; actually, he was injured even before coming to the past. Also, he wasn't so weak to be defeated by those weaklings from before and neither was patient enough to listen to the implications of the other storm guardian. He was reaching his limit.

_Juudaime…where are you? _He thought. _Please be safe. I'll save you and then we'll go home. _

Gokudera looked briefly at the sky and prayed that he could find as soon as possible the young Vongola heir, or they would have to pray for their souls instead. Reborn was _somewhat _unforgiving. The hitman would most likely torture them if they took too long. He could endure the punishment, but he couldn't forgive himself if Tsuna had to go through the same thing. Or even worse, knowing how sadistic Reborn could be.

Absorbed in thoughts, he didn't realize he was walking towards the other man, who had stopped walking and was with his head slightly tilted down. The next moment, he found himself almost falling to the ground.

"Ouch! Why the hell did you stop for!?" Gokudera shouted at G, who said nothing. That was strange because Gokudera was sure that G would behave much in the same way was he did.

The red-haired man raised his head and looked at Gokudera, who quickly stepped back as if he feared that he would receive his punishment now. It was not what he had expected. G continued to look at him, and too thoughtful for someone who had just been scolded by someone younger.

Gokudera could almost hear the gears moving inside the man's head. He really was thinking. Thinking about what? In the best way to cause pain to a suspect brat who was suspiciously fighting mafia-like men in a forest near the town? It was that kind of face G had on. But that was (fortunately) not the case.

G narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue.

_On second thought…should I really take him to the mansion? _He thought deeply of all possibilities, if the boy was an enemy and if he were not. _It's safer if I do not. Leave him in a hotel should be enough to keep him under my nose; Francisco's hotel that is. Moreover, we are very busy with the final preparations before we leave for the mafia party, and keep another brat inside the mansion will be even more troublesome. It's better if I keep him away and under surveillance. _

When G turned to look at him, Gokudera could get a general idea of what was happening. Both of them had similar ideas. He was not naïve. He himself would take the same precautions if he found an injured person struggling with a suspect family. He would think twice before bringing such person under the same roof as his boss. It was understandable, and it was the best decision that G could have done for him. That way he could look for clues about Tsuna, whether he was in Italy or not.

Not everything went as Gokudera predicted. G really had taken he to stay in a hotel, which was particularly good in the standards of the time but he had one condition for doing so.

"If you leave this hotel, and oh, I'll know, be sure of that, **I'll kill you**. Understood?"

Gokudera gritted his teeth. His hands curled into fists and he felt an urge to yell at G. He could feel his face turning red in anger and the bit of patience he had left was about to end. That redheaded man had many tricks up his sleeve. Had he read his real intention even though he hasn't spoken? How could he look for Tsuna if he couldn't leave the hotel?

On the other hand, arranging a quarrel with the family of Vongola Primo was not a joke. Gokudera had no idea of how much, but he was sure they were very strong and he would not have many chances to win. He had been cornered.

With what little pride he had left, he cracked a smile and said with some difficulty, "A-A-Alright."

G took advantage of the situation, "I didn't hear. Speak up, brat."

Gokudera's smile widened and his hands trembled. Now he was plenty sure that G was doing it on purpose. He wanted to torment him. The corner of his mouth trembled and he nearly said to the man to go fuck himself. It was a delicate situation anyway. Tsuna was somewhere, wounded, lost, and unable to talk to anyone reliable and he, Gokudera, couldn't get in a fight with the Vongola Primo's storm guardian. Gradually, he sighed and calmed down a bit.

"…Fine. I promise I won't leave the hotel."

If he made an effort, he could say something with the calmest voice possible while he was burning in anger inside of his head. What was the case. Once he find Tsuna and find a way back to the future, which he would still have to figure out as he also didn't know how he had came to the past, he would give a good beating on the other storm guardian. Until then, he had to endure the most.

If he could, that is.

* * *

><p>"Repeat."<p>

A simple order made Shoichi almost piss in his pants. The hitman was pointing a gun at his head, which until moments ago was a chameleon of a weird color of green. And the expression on Reborn's face, the number one hitman in the world, said he would shoot him if he judged his answer wasn't acceptable enough.

Shoichi Irie, above all, wanted to be someone else at the moment. Of all people, and even Spanner, why he had to be the one to tell the bad news? For a moment he regretted having created alongside Dr. Verdi, the mad scientist he admired, a device that momentarily canceled the natural growth and made the arcobaleno into adults. The good side? Conveniently for him, it only lasted for only 1 hour. Not so conveniently, Shoichi would have to wait for a long hour.

_Damn invention!_

"U-Unfortunately, it appears that the storm guardian, Hayato Gokudera-kun, also disappeared."

That was it. The red-haired boy counted his last seconds of life before hearing the fearsome sound of trigger unlocking, but no such sound came. Reborn had lowered his gun and had a terrible aura around him. Irie swallowed heavily. He started praying for every God he knew and even asked clemency to Budha. At that moment, he knew he would spend more and more sleepless nights after that day. And that day, he cursed his bad luck.

"Shoichi Irie, it seems like that the night will be long." Reborn smiled a devil's smile under the shadow of his fedora and walked toward the young engineer, who trembled in fear.

And so, the adult Reborn smirked.

* * *

><p><strong>Take a peek in the next chapter:<strong>

**(Part I)**

"Tsuna…he traveled through time."

Gokudera turned to him with astonishment all over his face. For a moment his instincts almost made him yell at Reborn, but his conscious side made him stop before doing so. He thought for a time as well. His previous experience about time traveling came to his mind.

"What make you say it, Reborn-san? Even if Juudaime traveled to the future, wouldn't his future self be here at the moment?"

_Then, why?_ That was the question.

* * *

><p><strong>(Part II)<strong>

"Boss! I came to announce that we have an invasion on the east wall."

Giotto turned to face his young subordinate, who should have the same age as Lampo and looked out the window.

"And whose family is it from?" he asked quickly, trying not to think of _that _family.

The young subordinate looked nervous for a moment and Giotto wondered if he had been rude to him. He was sure that his voice was not very loud. Sensing his subordinate's discomfort, Giotto walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder encouraging him to speak. This time he _really _was being polite.

"Yes, Lui? Please continue." And he even preferred calling him by his nickname as to calm him.

"Actually…it's complicated…" Lui faltered and looked around nervously. "We…we have no idea which family the boy is."

Giotto looked at him with surprise on his face and frowned. "Boy?"

Lui shook his head frantically. Even he was confused and if he hadn't seen with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed in what he had seen.

"This boy, does he look familiar? What is his appearance?" Giotto asked, motioning for Lui to follow. In an instant they were crossing a door on one of sides of the mansion and going straight to the east wall.

And again, Lui had remained silent, not knowing what to answer. It only made curiosity grown in Giotto.

"What happened?"

Lui winced and shook his head.

"Boss…I don't know how to say this but this boy looks like that red-haired man who came to visit you the other day."

In the same instant, Giotto stopped walking and stared dumbfounded at Lui. "What did you say?"

* * *

><p><strong>So...well...long time no see? I must apologize for this crappy and short chapter but I'll assure you that next chapter things will be better, so forgive me, ne? Keep in mind that chapter 3 and 4 (this one) are not properly beta-ed, so please point out any mistakes I may have made until I upload the revised version...and again, it might take a while.<strong>

**Also, I think I'll post the next chapter very soon because I'm already finishing it and soon I'll proofread it. I hope you enjoyed the preview for the next chapter (as an apology) and please review. I very much like it. See you soon.**

**Note:**** Since the last chapter G have been talking in Italian with Gokudera, that's why their sentences aren't in _italic. _Sentences will only appear in _italic _when someone doesn't understand Italian. **


	5. Doppelgangers – Part I

**Here I am again! That was "_fast_" hum? I hope this can make up for last chapter. And this fanfiction is slow-paced so please bear with me. **

* * *

><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Five:<strong> Doppelgangers – Part I_

* * *

><p>"Then, I'm counting with your help, Francisco."<p>

G and the man named Francisco shook their hands in a sign of agreement reached. Francisco was a man of thirty-six years married to a woman a little younger, and they had two kids but the third could already be seen in Carla's prominent belly. They were not rich, but thanks to the success of Francisco's hotel, their family could live with a certain comfort and happiness. But it has not always been that way.

As G dropped Francisco's hand, he looked at him for a few seconds as he thought about what happened early in the year. He couldn't help but let out a low growl and feel angry. Lately, everything seemed to go wrong, especially since the small vigilante group turned into mafia a little over two years. Mafias were bad; it destroyed what one loved like the town they loved to live in, it killed people for nothing and it corrupted the world. That's what he always thought, until he learnt a little more about the real story of mafia that ended up wowing Giotto. When he last expected, G was involved with strangers Giotto brought to recruit and gradually they became known as "guardians".

With the latest developments, G came to wonder if everything would have been worth it. And for a brief moment he even thought it would be better if the Vongola didn't exist in the future, and as well as any other mafia.

He shook his head and laughed at himself. What bullshit he had thought. As if the Vongola could exist even after all these years. It was obvious that after Giotto was no more able to lead as a boss of a mafia, the family would cease to exist. Giotto wouldn't want his descendants to engage in such dangerous business and the same would be said for others. The family's future was endangered. It's not like the Vongola would last for longer, for example, a hundred years, right?

Feeling somewhat relieved, G left the hotel and looked at one of the windows of the third floor. He could see the silhouette of a young teen with silver hair and smirked; the boy in question looked furious as if he would jump at any moment from the window and attack him right there in the middle of the large street. And that amused him immensely so much that G wanted a little more fun. He motioned with his head as if taking off an invisible hat, as if he were greeting Gokudera and went down the street toward the mansion.

Gokudera clicked his tongue in disgust and clenched his fists.

_Tch. Damn you, G. Just wait for me. _

He pulled the thin beige curtain back to its place and lay down in bed. His ankle hurt a little bit, which was a sign that the effect of medicine was gradually wearing off. If he was lucky, he wouldn't need to keep the bandages for more than five days and that would give him an assurance. The faster he was in a good condition, the better. And then he would be released from that ridiculous _prison_.

While Gokudera was thinking of ways to know the whereabouts of his boss, G walked while thinking of a thousands of things at once. He thought about Gokudera and how similar he was to him, both physically, as in the way he acted and spoke. But it was not just that. G feared that something very strange was happening behind his back. Gokudera was not the only one who looked like to someone close; the japanese boy Sawada also resembled someone he knew, and none other than his childhood friend Giotto.

G was intrigued.

The red-haired man narrowed his eyes and made a resolution. As soon as he arrived at the mansion, he would _friendly_ ask Giotto why Sawada was _similar _to him. It was not like he suspected that his friend was hiding something from him, of course not, but he needed to know. G remembered it; as soon as the boy woke up, Giotto and he had a private conversation and so far he didn't know what was the content of their conversation. But should he mention Gokudera while at it? G was pretty sure he hadn't a cousin or any other relative _so _muchalike him as Gokudera was.

_Anyway, _G thought as he scratched his head. _I think I should get going. Giotto must be worried. _

* * *

><p>G shouldn't have rushed so much. Though he was expecting that Giotto could be worried, he didn't thought it would be <em>that <em>much. When he arrived at the mansion, he went straight toward the stairs to the second floor; well, he would if not for the noise almost silent coming from the living room that drawn his attention to there. It was shoes walking on a carpet sound. His ears were good so he could hear it.

He peeked into the room and his eyes widened in an instant. Giotto was walking in circles around the room, while holding his chin with a hand.

"Primo?" he asked, entering the living room. Giotto quickly turned to face him, clearly startled at being interrupted in whatever he was doing and a nervous smile grew on his face. "What are you doing?"

Giotto scratched his cheek and laughed nervously. "I...hum...was...thinking?"

The storm guardian raised his eyebrows as he scanned the place, which was in a big mess. There were papers everywhere and two books on top of a couch. None of them were related to what the blond man should be doing at the moment.

G sighed and took one of the papers that were under his feet.

"Seriously, Giotto," he took another one and began to stacking up them one after another. "What the hell are you doing instead of signing those important papers inside of your office room?" he shook his head. "I know it must be boring, tiring, and lonely sometimes but you must do it as our boss. Please don't slack off now."

The young mafia boss watched as his right-hand man took the papers he had carelessly thrown in all directions. His eyes softened at the sight and he began helping G.

"I'm sorry." He admitted in a low voice. "I must be unreliable, mustn't?"

G placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed him, "I didn't say it, idiot. You're my childhood friend and also my best friend, it's my duty to warn you when you're doing something you shouldn't."

Giotto laughed, "You're right, my friend."

The red-haired man was glad Giotto had come to his senses but he was still annoyed, so he muttered indifferently, "Hmpf. Of course I'm right. I'm your right-hand man after all."

The impatient man puffed out his chest and stood that way until Giotto burst into laughter.

"Okay, okay." Giotto raised his hand as if surrounding himself and stood up right after the other. He directed his blue eyes to the floor and his shoulders stiffened. "I was worried..."

G avoid his eyes when the blond man looked up at him. He felt embarrassed. Even now Giotto still could be very motherly, and that was a little embarrassing.

"I know," he said. "But I'm fine, see?" when he didn't obtain any answer, he decided to continue, "Anyway, there's a thing bothering me ever since that boy was rescued."

Giotto frowned.

"You mean Tsunayoshi?" he asked. "What about him?" his eyes widened. "Don't tell me; did you find something about his background?"

His right-hand man shook his head and took a seat.

"No, not _yet_," he closed his red eyes as he thought of a manner to ask the man before him why there was a boy looking like him. "What I've been meaning to ask you about him is some other thing. And if you don't answer me truthfully I'm afraid I can't answer for my actions."

Giotto blinked. G was serious; he was looking at him with the same eyes he used to intimidate the others when he accompanied him in the mafia meetings. For his own sake he should say something, even if he didn't know anything either.

He remembered the look on the boy's face; he was hiding something very important under that innocent-looking face. Tsunayoshi didn't want to tell him, and of course he couldn't blame him for it. It was hard trusting people. But at the same time, Giotto had the urge to know what was that little voice speaking in his mind every time he thought about the boy.

Why was he injured that way as if he had just left a battle field? Why does he have an artifact ring-like with _Vongola Famiglia _written on it?

If under normal circumstances, Giotto could have thought that the boy was a spy. All of it could be explained under that logic, but deep inside him, he knew that Tsunayoshi didn't poses any danger. Then, how could he assure G of that?

Giotto lift up his head and slowly looked at G. He still had that fierce look on his face; he wouldn't step back on his question.

"What was that thing you found on the brat's pocket?" he asked.

The blond man's eyes widened.

_Damn it, he saw that! _

Now it was impossible to get out of that. G would go to the end of the world to obtain the answer; he knew he would. It no longer was a matter of explaining to him that Tsunayoshi was a good boy and wouldn't do anything to them, what G really wanted to know why a boy who looked so much like him _had _that thing even he couldn't explain.

"And why does he look so much like you, Primo?"

Giotto stare at him with a confused look on the face. He, too, wanted to know why. It wasn't like he didn't noticed the resemblance between them. One could tell they were blood-related, like a brother or a cousin—but he didn't have any siblings.

Perhaps he couldn't really wait for the boy to open up and tell him?

G was taken back by the look on Giotto's face. Through that simple but meaningful look, he could say one thing for sure. Giotto was intrigued and wanted answers as well.

* * *

><p>G didn't obtain any answer at the end. He left the living room as soon he realized that even Giotto didn't know anything. Then, he headed towards to the improvised infirmary. Knuckle should be there.<p>

And he was right. The priest man was in the infirmary when he entered the place.

"Oh, G!" Knuckle greeted him rather quiet. A frown quickly grown on his forehead. "What's the matter? You don't have an extreme look on your face."

G sighed and took a cigarette pack inside of his white long-sleeve shirt's pocket. As he was about to lit the cigarette, Knuckle quickly took it from the red-haired man's long fingers and stepped on it.

"Not inside the infirmary!" he complained. "This place is as sacred as a church! May God forgive us."

G rolled his eyes in annoyance. His almost-used cigarette had been stepped on, what a waste.

"Tch."

Knuckle took a seat and motioned to the other do the same. "So, what brings you here to the extreme?"

The storm guardian sat on a chair that stood opposite to Knuckle and stared at the priest man for a long moment before speaking. He needed to be careful. Knuckle wasn't a person who could keep silent when Giotto was involved. Of course, he could keep a secret as a priest but Giotto was his boss _and _his friend.

It was a risky move, and G decided to do so.

"I need your help with something," he spoke up. "And it's urgent."

Knuckle frowned and he leaned slightly forward. It was a rare sight seeing the always reliable G asking help from someone. He should take this rare opportunity God had sent him gratefully.

"And what kind of help do you need me for?" he asked smiling. "I'll try to help you in the best manner."

G shook his head at the offer. "It won't be necessary, you'll only need your Sun Flame for this request."

At hearing 'Sun Flame' Knuckle narrowed his eyes. Usually, when he had to use those especial flames, it could be to fight, which could lead to the death of someone. He didn't like it; he vowed he wouldn't kill anymore. Even if he would fight for three minutes only, would God forgive him in the end?

He directed his honey brown eyes to the floor and with a low voice asked, "And why would we need my Sun Flame? Don't tell me there's someone endangering the Family!"

Once again G shook his head. "Fortunately not, I think. We'll need your flame to fix up a brat I found."

When Knuckle was about to open his mouth to say something, G interrupted him. It could become troublesome if he didn't do it.

"I'll ask you discretion for this, Knuckle. Giotto must not know about this conversation and even more about the brat, did you heard me? He mustn't!"

"Why?" Knuckle asked him suspiciously.

The red-haired man's lips trembled and he ran a hand through his hair. He knew it would be troublesome and he should already prepare himself for Knuckle's reaction later.

"You'll know once you get there. Now, we must get going."

* * *

><p><strong>(Future – A <strong>**week before current time in the past****, some hours after the incident)**

Several days ago, somewhere in the future in a small apartment's hospital bedroom, was an infant and a teenager. Gokudera was lying in the hospital bed with some bandages on his arms and his face entirely covered, which made him look like a mummy. Reborn was on the bed with his face partially covered by the shadow of his fedora.

"What's the meaning of this?" Gokudera had asked, with a tone of confusion in his voice. "So Juudaime really disappeared?"

"No, that's impossible," Reborn argued. He had already thought about it countless times. No matter how, it was just impossible. "No one can vanish in an instant just like that before one's eyes."

Everyone had seen the last moments of the brunette right before their eyes and it could be somewhat acceptable. Or at least explainable. But what happened next wasn't one bit something from this world. It was impossible something like disappearing right before dying could , that's right. It couldn't be possible. Even so, he thought for a moment again. Tsuna couldn't possibly have disappeared just like that, leaving nothing behind. There must be an explanation to it! Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air?

Even if the boy died, he couldn't just vanish within the air. It wasn't like he could do the same as Uni. And even if he could, his clothes could be left behind. So, what had happened?

_Think, _Reborn told himself countless times. He replayed the disgraceful and sad scene many times in his head as if to try to pick something that could lead him to a clue. Right before dying his stupid student had said something in a very low voice. Of course, being the one hell of a hitman he was, Reborn remembered his lips movements.

His eyes narrowed.

_What was that again? If I remember well...he said..._

His eyes widened after some seconds. It couldn't be, could it...?

It was the only thing he could think of at the moment.

"Tsuna...he traveled through time."

Gokudera turned to him with astonishment all over his face. For a moment his instincts almost made him yell at Reborn, but his conscious side made him stop before doing so. He thought for a time as well. His previous experience about time traveling came to his mind.

"Excuse me?" Gokudera pleaded. "R-Reborn-san, I'm sorry for being stupid but...are you kidding me?"

Reborn eyed him in a rigid look. "And do I have the look of someone who is capable of joking especially now?"

Gokudera shook his head and looked down. "N-No."

_Definitely not, _he thought sweat dropping.

After some time he regained his courage and continued, "But what make you say it, Reborn-san? Even if Juudaime traveled to the future, wouldn't his future self be here at the moment?"

_Then, why?_ That was the question.

Right after saying those words, his eyes widened in realization. He swallowed heavily before speaking again.

"U-unless...Juudaime is already...dead in the future."

Reborn gritted his teeth. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about that as well. He had, but he simply couldn't accept that his idiotic student from the future had died at such young age. Twenty-six years. Excellent age to be marrying and building a new family.

Something clicked inside his mind. Gokudera's reasoning wasn't wrong, but it didn't mean it was right. There was something lacking and he knew what it was.

"Yes, it's true Gokudera. But let me ask you this: then, if Tsuna is really dead, where's his bones? There should be bones if he's dead right? Even if he's dead not too long, where's his corpse? He can't simply go to the future and be at the same time as his bones and/or corpse, and do you know why?"

Gokudera slowly nodded. Of course he knew why.

"Time paradox."

"Exactly," Reborn shook his head. "The likelihood of him being cremated is null. All of Vongola's former bosses follow the Italian and Christian customs; they all are buried. Even if Tsuna is Japanese, he still is a Vongola boss."

Gokudera calmed down a bit. What Reborn had said was true. He remembered someone saying that below Vongola's mansion there was a chamber where all of the former bosses where buried inside. In the future, even if Gokudera didn't like to think about it, Tsuna would be buried in there as well when he died. But, neither his bones nor his future self appeared. And even more, why didn't he came back after five minutes? What does that mean then?

"As to why his bones didn't appear...it can most likely mean only one thing," Reborn continued as he stared walking in circles on the bed. "If his bones aren't right here in front of us, which means, there's nothing to be shown, then it means he went to a place where there wasn't a replacement for him."

Gokudera frowned.

"Juudaime went to a place where there isn't a replacement for him?" he asked frowning even more. He didn't understand where Reborn was trying to get at. "I-I'm sorry Reborn-san, I don't understand."

Reborn sighed tiredly. He wished he wasn't right. If he was...it only meant trouble.

"Tsuna went to the past."

Gokudera's expression slowly changed. His jaw dropped and his mouth trembled, his eyes shone because of the insistent tears about to roll out of them. Suddenly a light of hope had been kindled within him. If it was like that, then it was still possible that there was salvation. A miracle like that wouldn't happen if Tsuna couldn't be saved. It should be a sign!

"Then...Juudaime may be alive!" he muttered.

Gokudera grabbed the blanket and got out of bed, and was about leave the room when Reborn stopped in front of him.

"Where do you think you're going?" as he said that, he pointed his index finger at the bomber. "And even more, in this ridiculous state."

"I'm going to where Juudaime is! I'll rescue him!" he shouted.

_It's my fault that it happened...then I must be the one to rescue Juudaime, _he thought, clenching his hands into fists.

"I know what you're thinking, but we can't be sure that Tsuna is really alive. You saw him..._dying_."

Gokudera shook his head furiously, "No! I refuse to believe it! Even if...my mind insistently keeps remembering me."

Reborn sighed.

"Then it can't be helped. We'll have to somehow get a way to travel to the past, a very distant past."

"But Reborn-san, how do you know Juudaime went to a very distant past?" It intrigued him how Reborn could know of such detailed thing. "I mean, he could have went to a past about ten years ago..."

"No," Reborn looked out of the window. "I'm sure of it. And Tsuna himself was the one to give me the clue."

* * *

><p><strong>(Past – Vongola Primo's time)<strong>

Tsuna was in his temporary bedroom alone. Earlier that day, he had a brief meeting with Vongola Primo's rain guardian, Ugetsu Asari, and they chatted a lot before before events took an unexpected and awkward turn between them. A single question had made the always calm man nearly lost his composure. For what Asari made it sound, even the Vongola from this time had their biggest secrets. Tsuna knew he shouldn't poke his nose in something it wasn't of his business, but he couldn't help. He was curious.

A tragic story as Asari had described it and for his face it really seemed a trouble. Had he the misfortune to came to a bad time? And speaking of it, how had he came to the past? Lambo's ten-year-bazooka couldn't have had a disfunction, could it?

Tsuna's memories were a mess. He remembered going to school the day before he appeared in the past, but after that there was nothing. It was a total blank where there should be recent memories. He pressed his temples as if to try even more hard in remembering but a sudden pain made him stop.

Suddenly his head seemed to burn. His hands flew directly to his head and hold it tightly. It was such a strong headache that his thoughts became messy. It was as if something was preventing him from remembering his most crucial memory.

_Not a time like this, please! I have to remember!_

"Why can't I remember!?" He voiced his thoughts frustrated and sighed tiredly.

He rolled on his bed and shut his eyes. At least the headache was willing to go away. Tsuna stayed on his bed in a curled position for several minutes. He didn't dare to open his eyes in fear to have a headache again. Eventually, he began to feel very sleepy and his concerns about his lost memory were brought to his dreams.

"Gokudera-kun..."

* * *

><p><strong>(Future – A week before <strong>current time in the past<strong>, some hours before the incident)**

It had came as a shock. Surprisingly, what could have been a peaceful meeting with a boss from another family turned into a war. The other side had the advantage since they had a larger number but Vongola couldn't be underestimated; Mukuro had taken down fifty men so far and Hibari fifty-two men. In some way, they were competing.

"Juudaime, we should go." Gokudera warned him.

"Gokudera's right, dame-Tsuna," Reborn appeared suddenly on his shoulder surprising the younger. "And don't give me that look, I had to do some calls."

It shouldn't surprise Tsuna anymore. Reborn always had to do something when things turned bad to them. And it wasn't like he was expecting any help from Reborn, but he could fight at least, after all, his life was a mess because of him.

"T-Then we need to call everyone," Tsuna said as he scanned his surroundings. Everyone was having their own fights.

A huge man suddenly appeared before them as they ran on. Gokudera didn't stop; he faced the man and took his weapons out. Tsuna quickly tried to stop the silver-haired boy but he was already engaged in the fight.

They shouldn't be engaging more fights.

"Gokudera, you idiot! Retreat!" Tsuna shouted, both in anger and concern as he saw the silver haired boy being surrounded by the enemy.

In a matter of seconds and Gokudera was found being forced to fight all of them. Ten men against one. Even for Gokudera, it was too many for him to handle and escape from there in one piece. He kept trying, ignoring the concerned shouts of the other guardians and even ignoring what his beloved boss was shouting at him. At the moment, nothing was more important to him than protecting Tsuna, even if it meant to get killed in the process.

Yamamoto finished fighting with a tall and brown-haired man and ran to Tsuna, who was still calling for Gokudera's name.

"This is bad, Tsuna..." Yamamoto, who was always calm and cheerful, was now with a deep frown on the face and his eyes showing no sign of happiness or any kind of good feelings. Anyone who dared to hurt his friends shouldn't be taken easy on, it was what his eyes were telling. "Gokudera...he's completely out of control. His mind have become unstable since he saw you in danger back there."

Tsuna clenched his shaking fists and narrowed his eyes. Gokudera was like that because of him. It was his fault. Everything happening was his fault. The brunette could hear from afar that Mukuro and Chrome were still fighting, and they both were in danger. Chrome was out of energy and Mukuro was fighting against three or four men while protecting her. Ryohei onii-san was having a hard time too. He closed his eyes in time to hear Yamamoto speaking again with fear in his voice.

"If this keeps up, he'll-" Yamamoto was saying but was interrupted when a sudden bust of Sky Flames exploded in his side. Tsuna was flying towards Gokudera. "T-Tsuna...!"

"Damn it!" Tsuna shouted as he passed by some enemy men who managed to injury him, but Gokudera was his only priority now. '_Why he always has to be so reckless? J-just because of...'_

"Gokudera!" he shouted once again, stretching out his right arm to the silver haired boy, who was a few feet below. Gokudera quickly looked up at the brunette and his eyes shone but soon enough his happy face was taken off by a frown and he shook his head. "Hurry up and take my hand!"

Gokudera turned his back on Tsuna and continued to fight. There still had five more men to take down, and considering the condition Gokudera was in, he was doing pretty well for someone injured that badly. But, Tsuna have been taken off-guard and gaped.

"W-what are you doing? Hurry!" he pleaded. It hurts seeing someone you hold dear being hurt and you can do nothing. Tsuna had ran off energy; he had no more strength to fight. His last energy had been used to fly to there with the Sky Flame. He desperately looked at his surroundings. The walls, the stairs, the trees, everything was burning in deep red. The narrow and dangerous bridge swayed as they were fighting. The old strings were becoming less reliable and the worn wooden creaked loudly. "This whole place is burning down and in any moment this bridge can fall down with you too!"

His desperate shouts didn't appear to reach Gokudera as the other didn't pay attention. Instead, Gokudera stopped and gave a step back, much to the enemies' surprise. Once he had stopped, Tsuna could see how bad was Gokudera's condition and that he couldn't continue to fight.

"Juudaime...you don't need to worry; I, as your right-hand man, will protect you no matter what," he said in a weak voice, which made Tsuna even more worried.

"You...c-cut it out already!"

"So, that's why, Juudaime," he continued, giving a small smile as he looked at his boss. His face was paler than normal and a trace of blood flowed from his lips. "I can't let you die here, because you'll be the best boss the Vongola will ever know."

Tsuna's eyes widened in fear as he saw that the five other enemies wanted to take this chance, while Gokudera was off-guard talking to him and finish things off. He still could sense his fists and legs shaking from the lack of strength but his heart still had the desire to fight for his beloved ones. He won't let anyone warm his friends. Making a final decision, he miraculously went into Hyper Mode and in an instant his eyes were shinning with a bright orange color which warned Gokudera that something was coming.

"I can't just not do something," Tsuna said protectively standing in front of him. "I can't let you fight in this conditions, Gokudera."

Tsuna sent a gentle smile to Gokudera and then looked at the five men with a cold glare. Gokudera swallowed; it was very rare to Tsuna do something like that. To his relief, Yamamoto appeared soon after.

"I'm going to cover for Tsuna, no need to worry, Gokudera," Yamamoto grinned and also turned forward to face the men. When he spoke, his voice was different, it was colder, "So, just stand still there and watch us."

Together, Yamamoto and Tsuna fought against the various weapons and techniques and after a few minutes the two were able to knock out all five. All the silly concerns Gokudera was having up until minutes ago disappeared as soon as he saw that Tsuna was out of danger. He fell to his knees, feeling his tiredness finally coming and smiled as he saw Tsuna and Yamamoto heading his way.

"See? Everything worked well Gokudera!" Yamamoto patted on his back and grinned. Tsuna knelt in front of him and gave him a smile that lit up his whole face. But their happiness did not last long enough.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Time seemed to go in _slow motion _as he watched the bullets head towards Tsuna and pierce through his frail body into several parts. He felt like he had been hit too as he watched the delicate face of his boss writhing in pain. But actually, he only had time to look up to see a red rain flying directly into his face. It was warm and smelled of iron.

Gokudera raised a hand to his face and touched the places where the crimson liquid had touched. It was still warm when he brought his hand to the height of his gaze and stared at the blood dripping through his fingers. His eyes widened as much as possible and his chin trembled when trying to form coherent sentences. It wasn't his blood. He looked down and his chin trembled even more as he saw the puddle of blood forming at the feet of his boss and the holes on Tsuna's clothes. His eyes widened even more when he caught notice of Tsuna's body collapsing onto the ground with a soft '_THUMP_' like the many lifeless bodies did that day.

That day, Gokudera forgot that Tsuna was his Juudaime, a young heir of a mafia family, and run at him as a friend would run at other to help.

"TSUNA!" He cried, quickly picking him up before he could fell into the river below them. Instants after, Gokudera heard hasty steps toward him. But he paid no attention. Not even when people repeatedly asked him to make room. His only concern was Tsuna's bad condition. And fury exploded in him as he looked up at two of the five men who were now standing, still with their guns pointed at them, and _smirking_ at him. "Y-you fucking bastards! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"HELP! Oh my god...this is bad. HELP! We just...need someone's help!" Yamamoto shouted desesperately.

Footsteps stopped right behind the silver-haired boy.

"That's..." A voice he recognized as being Sasagawa's and a loud sob which came from Chrome. "...Sawada?"

Gokudera looked at them. Besides these two, all others were there, including Reborn who incredibly had a surprised expression in his face while staring at Tsuna's lifeless body on Gokudera's protective arms. The right-hand man looked down, the silver blocks shadowing his face and when he looked up again, his eyes were filled with hatred.

"Yamamoto, take care of Juudaime," he said in a quiet voice, slowly lying Tsuna on the ground. He stood up and looked at the other side of the falling bridge. The enemies were gone. They must've disappeared right after the others came. Cowards. Bastards. They'll pay for this, it was all of what was crossing Gokudera's mind. "I need to take care of a certain business. I'm gonna kill that fucking bastards and take off their heads and members and..."

"G-Gokudera!" Yamamoto exclaimed in fear. The silver-haired boy was out of control again.

When Gokudera started crossing the bridge, Reborn spoke in an authoritative voice, "Hibari, you're the only one who is in perfect shape. Go there and try to find the men who escaped."

Hibari, who never take orders from anyone, said nothing but did what Reborn asked him without any further discussion. Gokudera became red in anger. He wanted to be the _one_ to kill those men with his own hands, but Reborn had to ask Hibari to find them instead of him.

"W-why? Why did you do that? I was ready to give them hell!" he shouted back at the hitman. This time he wasn't afraid of Reborn's terrible wrath or whatever it was. That tall figure with huge kill intent didn't afraid him this time such was his uncontrollable state.

Reborn stood right before him, looking down at him with fierce and cold eyes. "Don't misunderstood me, I'm not doing this for you but for _him_." He said, gesturing with his head to the ground, where a shaking Tsuna was, trying to catch Gokudera's leg.

"Tsuna! Juudaime! Boss! Sawada!"

The guardians quickly came to him. Surprisingly enough, Lambo was the first to reach at his side. He had jumped off Chrome's embrace. Gokudera, worried as always, was the second one. He crouched down and hold Tsuna up a little, so he wouldn't choke on his own blood. The weaker one, mumbled something but it was almost inaudible and Gokudera didn't hear it.

Tsuna opened a little his weary eyes, that insisted on making him fall asleep. His eyelids, now weighed by excessive sleepiness, danced on his big orbs of honey brown eyes. He winced in pain. It hurt too much. It burned. It seemed like someone was burning him alive.

The young heir pulled Gokudera a little closer to him by his tattered suit's sleeve. The silver-haired boy could feel that Tsuna was making a huge force to keep the grip on his tattered black suit, even if it was causing him more pain. He also could feel that the brunette was trying to form sentences, but the pain or the blood were messing up with his chances.

"B-boss...p-please, don't say anything!" Chrome begged, holding his right hand in her owns. "Y-you'll be fine, isn't it right, boxing-guy-san?" she asked back at Ryohei.

Ryohei snapped out of his stunned state and quickly agreed. "S-she's right, Sawada! I'll heal you to the E-EXTREME!"

He didn't sound convincing and before Ryohei could do that, Tsuna coughed more blood, which scared Lambo because he had never seen baka-Tsuna in such deplorable state. His onii-chan was dying and even someone like him could tell that. It scared him the most. Not only that, but he also knew that Mama would be the most hurt person once she was told the news. She would never be the same person again and it was his fault too, because he was onii-chan's guardian as well.

Lambo knew. He should've listened to Gokudera's hysterical shouts. He was right, after all. He should've trained instead of spending time playing like a child. The great Lambo wasn't a child. He was a hitman and a Vongola Decimo's guardian.

"L-Lambo...don't cry," Tsuna pleaded, coughing up again as he tried to get up from Gokudera's embrace and trying to hug or comfort him somehow. "P...please, Lambo!" he wanted to say more, but his choking didn't end.

Lambo noticed it and cried even more.

Yamamoto shook his head slowly, trying to deny that everything what was happening right in front of him was real. _He tried, _but the sobs and cries brought him back to the harsh and cruel reality. Tsuna, his friend, and the one who had saved him from having jumped from the school's roof and given him a new life with real friends, was dying right in front of him.

_Sob._

"I...I said you not to fight d-didn't I?" Tsuna managed to say, under his breath, looking into Gokudera's eyes with an unfocused stare. "I s-said retreat didn't I-I? But...y-you're really an idiot and didn't l-listen me."

_Sob._

Tsuna turned his face to look at others. Yamamoto was on verge of crying. Ryohei was desperately looking for a method to heal him. Chrome had been crying for a long time now and was being embraced close to Mukuro, whose expression as the same as always. Lambo, poor Lambo, was the one in the worst condition. He was only a child, and children shouldn't watch such sad things. Tsuna held his tears back. He wasn't crying for himself, but for those seeing him in that state.

As he looked at Reborn a hole appeared in his heart. Was he that injured? Reborn wasn't like his usual self. He was biting his bottom lip and his expression was somewhat sad. If Reborn was like that, then it meant...

He smirked. He moved his head and stared at the sky. At the moment, he didn't hear anything Gokudera was saying but his lips movements gave him a slight idea. His heart pounded heavily.

"**You can't die yet, Tsuna!**"

"This...this is the second time you c-called me 'Tsuna' today, _Hayato_." he spoke up, smiling.

His whole body seemed lighter and suddenly the sharp pain he was feeling was gone. He even felt happy. Gokudera had finally began calling him by his name as a true friend would. In the end, it had paid off treating him. His breathing had become irregular as he continued.

"I...am...happy..." tears slip from his eyes as he gave a smile again.

Yamamoto took one of his hands and shook it. "Enough, Tsuna! Don't speak anymore!"

Ryohei cursed and he noticed he didn't have sun flames enough to heal such serious injuries and that they were losing their sky. Everyone at the moment sensed it.

"No! No! NO!" Gokudera refused to believe it. "You'll be all right, Juudaime! We...we just need a doctor. A _real _doctor and t-then you'll be fixed up."

"Where's the doctor?" he shouted at no one in particular. All he received was sad looks. "What are all of you doing? Go get a doctor!"

Tsuna gave him a sympathetic smile as he looked at Gokudera. Everyone knew, and even him, that he wouldn't have chances to live. Ryoheii onii-san had done everything he could to save him, but he had lost too much blood before his treatment. One of the bullets had hit his stomach. He was done for.

The brunette slowly raised a hand toward the silver-haired boy's face, while still keeping his smile on the face. He should be strong at times like this, or they would be even more sadder. Was Reborn going to be proud of him?

"...don't get angry, okay?" he managed to say as he felt he was losing consciousness. His vision started to blurry and he coughed a last time as he breathing slowed. "So...sorry..."

Gokudera widened his green eyes as Tsuna's hands fell down. "Juu...Juudaime? Oi! Juudaime? Don't...do this to me...Juudaime?! Wake up!"

The cries and sobs intensified. Gokudera was pitiful as he tried to wake up the brunette in his arms and Yamamoto cried silently. Chrome wasn't in condition to keep standing anymore and Mukuro had to help her. Even his expression was solemn. Lambo was crying so hard that electricity was coming out from his horns. And Reborn's expression wasn't any better; he had a dark expression as he clicked his tongue and lowered his fedora as if to hide his face.

_Stupid Tsuna, how could you die on us like that? _

Tsuna's eyes slowly started closing on its own and a small smile remained in his lips. He would never know if Reborn was truly proud of him. Not even if he wouldever confess to the girl he loves. And not even graduate from high school and get a normal job, and lead a normal life. So, was all going to end like this...?

_Am I really dying? _It was all he thought as he lost consciousness and everything went dark. _Am I really going to die and leave my mom alone? I-I don't to die yet! I still have things I must do! I can't...! If only...if only I could live a peaceful life. Or if only I could live again and go to the past and change everything, then I could live peacefully...!_

_**Do you want it? **_A voice asked him. It was a calm and yet monotone voice.

_Who?, _he had asked. It was dark and he couldn't sense anyone near him. But deep inside him he felt a sense of familiarity when he heard that man's voice. So he asked again, _Who are you?_

_**Is that what you really wish for, Decimo? **_

The voice had ignored his question but for Tsuna it didn't matter because at the moment he was in complete stupor. His inner world had turned upside down.

He _knew _that voice.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This chapter has been divided in two as it unexpectedly turned too long. Ah, oh god! Why is writing so much fun? Lately, it's being very fun thinking about the next chapters that I can't stop writing ideas and cataloging then into chapters previews. I have never done this before as I just and simply write the whole chapter from my mind, but is being successful so far. If I'm not too lazy you guys will have at least two new chapters very soon! And I'm really sorry, Giotto's eyes are in true orange even if he's not in HDWM and in this fanfiction they're blue. I'm really sorry! **

**And please guys, review! I just used a really good suggestion from someone who reviewed and I will thank her later. Who knows your suggestion can appear next chapter? So just write your thoughts down there and press the button. Easy right? I promise you it won't hurt you. And I don't bite! See ya. **


	6. Doppelgangers – Part II

**I'm _so _lucky to caught a cold during Christmas. Feel my irony. My back still hurts. That's why I couldn't update sooner.**

I hope this chapter (part two) is as good as part one. I'll briefly answer some reviews:

**The Mouse Maestro**: Actually I didn't know it's an original idea of "going to the past" fanfiction, but I'm happy if it seems so.

**ColdCurl**: I had fun writing their interaction and wish I could write more about them...but story has to progress and I can't focus only on them. What a shame!

**long live marshmallows**: Omg, is that you?! Sorry...I just love your fanfictions! I've been reading your stories ever since Detective in Town! Yeah...I wanted to write a story where I could focus more on the 1st gen. and as a background Tsuna and his friends going to the past, even though Tsuna IS the main character here. And no, Tsuna didn't hear Gokudera. You could call that...Hyper Intuition. I like long chapters too but mostly because I can explore the story better. I'm glad my selfishness is being accepted. Yes, I have to make it worth since after summer vacation I won't be as "free" as I am now.

**Soul of The World**: No romance. Absolutely.

**BrokenBlackCat**: You guessed right...that's no fun! :D

**Lady Ariadna**: Thank you so much for point out my childish mistakes! I only realized them after uploading, even though I'd proofread it so many times before. The case is: after spending weeks and sometimes even months writing a single chapter, I just don't feel like revising my stories. Gah. But really, you didn't offend me at all. I'm grateful to you!

**Fi Suki Saki**: It might be a spoiler but...poor Gokudera, I pity you. LOL. Go read all of previous chapters now. G wanted Knuckle to heal Gokudera. I wrote that.

_"Fortunately not, I think. We'll need your flame to fix up a **brat** I found." (Brat on G's language: that's Gokudera since he was the one to found him)_

**Uni Giglio Nero**: I'm glad you liked it! Well, I thought that was obvious but yes, that was Giotto. Giotto's sexy voice.

**Tiger723**: LOL! I choked on my coca-cola now! Really, I nearly died! Let's leave the biting for Hibari, because he's expert on this. And why, thank you. I'm glad that's not too confusing. I'm trying to let it easier to understand the sudden change of time (past and future). Thanks for the cake.

**Yuu3**: The part two is here, and _some _of your questions will be answered here. I understand your point but keep in mind that when people feel cornered by a problem, _some _of them tend to see any hope and pursue it. Gokudera is a hotheaded person, yes, mostly when it comes to Tsuna. I don't know if I made it clear, but as I can see I did not, Gokudera is fighting with himself. A part of him, the conscious and logical one, and sadly, is convinced that Tsuna is unfortunately dead. And the other part, a little voice in his mind saying that there was still hope, believed that _perhaps _there was a way. I still didn't have time enough in these last two chapters to describe well enough of what's going on Gokudera's mind, but soon there will be. Until then, please, let's bear what this chapter has to offer us.

**Cecilia Beth**: Sorry for the wait. Here's the chapter 6. And thank you, I tried to make it realistic.

And I said it'd be briefly…haha.

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><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._"

_Thoughts_

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Six:<strong> Doppelgangers – Part II_

* * *

><p>"<em>P-Please, don<em>_'__t die!_"

Those words haunted him. The person was broken, he could tell, and his despair was clear in his voice. It was understandable because he, too, was feeling hopeless. How could he ensure the person that everything was going to be all right?

It wasn't like he wanted this to happen. Then, how could he get back to normal again?

One could think about their death wish in a desperate time or even possibly think about their regrets during their lives. Tsuna was no different; he thought about his regrets during his life as he did countless times already. If he hadn't any regret, he wouldn't have managed to survive to his first time being shot by a Dying Will Bullet. He could have died if he hasn't any regrets. And that day was no different, but what could save him wasn't a special bullet but something even more incredible.

He wished he could change time. That day he made a wish that could change the course of his life if he survived.

Everything around him slowed. And even more cliché, his whole life flashed before his eyes.

Tsuna remembered his mom and absent dad. A good memory of his childhood days flew through his mind. In those days everything was so easy and peaceful; his dad wasn't so absent as he is now. His only worry was to play around and be the mom's child. It was then he remembered something about two months ago.

He once asked Gokudera if he would call him by his name, just like any other close friend would. At the time, the Italian boy refused. Obviously, Tsuna felt hurt. He knew Gokudera for a fair time now; they _should_ already be calling themselves for their given names.

He didn't insist though.

After gaining courage, little by little he dropped off the honorific and started calling Gokudera by just his family name. Then, he wondered if some day all his effort to close the gap between them would pay off. Would Gokudera call him Tsuna one day? Would he really consider him as his friend instead of only his so-called boss? He just hoped so.

When he heard those heavy steps going to his direction, and a rough voice calling him by his name, he knew it had really paid off. And unfairly as life is, he wouldn't be able to spend the moment. Life, or more accurately death, was driving him away from a moment he had been waiting for so long.

He let himself be dragged to a cold and dark place. Tsuna felt as if his body was floating and underneath himself was a frozen ocean. He didn't dare to open his eyes; he was too afraid of knowing where he was. Once he knew, he would wish to have a way to get out of there. However, that peace wouldn't last long. He wasn't alone and he learnt that not long after.

His eyes were drawn to something flashing beside him. He saw nothing but darkness. He was sure he had seen something, and just when he had decided to open his eyes. Tsuna trembled. He shut his eyes tightly. The thought of being trapped on a mysterious place after dying was terrifying. What if he never leaves this place?

It was then he heard it—a soft voice spoke from beside him, exactly where he had seen a flashing moments ago.

**_Do you want it?_** The voice asked him. Though the voice was somewhat distant, cold, and pierced through him like a dagger, the voice also calmed his fears. Tsuna wasn't afraid anymore. Slowly he opened his eyes, and yet everything around him was dark.

Though the question made by the voice was vague, its meaning was very clear for the boy. It offered him what humankind many times desired of obtaining. Traveling through time had its implications and it was tempting. If the opportunity to fulfill his wish was available, then why not take it?

It was until he heard the voice again.

**_Is that what you really wish for, Decimo? _**

In that moment of despair in his last moments of life, Tsuna couldn't ask for anything more. Until then, he was prepared for anything that would happen. Doctors could revive him, or even possibly, he couldn't even been dying. But all he could least expect was to hear _that_ voice. It was so nostalgic; the last time he had heard it was during a difficult time but there was a difference—this time _he_ was talking to him. And it wasn't a memory incrusted in the Ring or whatsoever; _he_ was right in front of him asking him questions.

Vongola Primo was real. The moment he realized it, the place became lighter and warmer. He could easily see Primo's features and his blank expression. An orange flame danced on Primo's forehead. His surroundings gradually took form, as well as sense. It was like he was in a whole and completely different dimension.

"Primo?" he dared to say. The tall figure's eyes glinted and he nodded, so Tsuna took this chance and continued, "What...what is happening? A-am I dead? Is that why I'm seeing you?"

Primo shook his head. After seeing that the former Vongola boss wouldn't say anything more, Tsuna took notice that he was in Hyper Dying Will Mode as well, and his wounds didn't hurt. He was fine and healed.

"Could you please explain me what's going on?" he pleaded as he scanned the place.

There was nothing except for Primo and him. And Primo himself was pretty much silent even after talking to him first. All he could think after this situation was that he was going to be availed and possibly be given the title as "the worst boss Vongola had and will ever have". Not that he cared much. To begin with, it hadn't been his choice joining the mafia. He still had regrets about letting innocent lives being involved with it.

**_So you do regret it?_** Primo spoke, his orange eyes softening. Tsuna gasped in surprise. **_Tell me, Tsunayoshi Sawada, would you go back in time just to change it on your favor?_**

Tsuna opened his mouth but closed it as quickly. He had just answered "yes" to the question inside his mind. Yes, he would go to the past and change it so that he wouldn't have to suffer anymore, and his friends wouldn't have to go through painful situations. If that was the question then yes, he would. But on his favor? He didn't agree with it. He wouldn't do it _just_ for him. He wasn't that kind of person.

"No, I wouldn't," he answered with conviction in his eyes. Primo nodded and stepped closer to him. "Not just for me."

**_You made a wish_**, as Primo said that, Tsuna slowly started remembering what he had asked for. His stupid wish put him in an awkward position. For his ancestor's presence, the brunette could tell that it wasn't something he could step back now. Just by healing his injuries that actually killed him, Primo was already defying the world's laws. **_You made a very outrageous and difficult wish. You wish to change time, isn't it?_**

Tsuna swallowed and simply nodded.

_Though I wouldn't have thought that it'd actually be granted. _

He had slowly accepted he was going to die as soon he realized that nothing could be done for him. He _had_ accepted that he would have to leave his friends and a desolated mother behind, and even that Reborn could never forgive him for dying so pathetically. And that was all when a sudden ray of hope appeared right before of him in the form of his ancestor. It was too much to swallow.

**_But I cannot do that_**, and all of Tsuna's hopes had been shattered again. **_I cannot do that because I'm not that powerful. Sending you back to your past just to change the course of things would infringe irreparable consequences. _**

"T-then...why did you save me?!" Tsuna asked. He was desperate; his only chance didn't exist. If he couldn't go back to the past and change it then there was no meaning to it. His friends would continue to suffer. "W-what am I here for?"

Unexpectedly, Primo smiled.

**_I did say that it was impossible for me to send you to your past. It's way more riskier than sending you to a more distant past where you hadn't been born._**

The brunette raised his eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

**_If I sent you to the time where you didn't know anything about mafia, it would only put your life in danger. You see, sending you to your own past could create a paradox, and your current self as well as your past self would disappear leaving nothing behind._**

"I-I didn't know about it," he looked down. He clenched his fists and bitting his bottom lip. "And even though I died, there's still many things I'd like to know."

The blond man smiled sympathetically at him. He knew very well what was going through the boy's mind. Though he was only a projection of what he once was stuck inside the ring, he had things he couldn't do and wished to have a second chance. But unlike Tsuna, who still had a chance, he had none. It was for that boy, who still had many years to live, and was his descendent as well, that his wish would come true.

Primo closed his orange eyes for some seconds as his smile spread. He wouldn't be able to do something like this for a while, but in the end it'd be worth it.

**_I can send you to my past_**, he said much to the boy's surprise. He noticed that saying something strange like that and carelessly as he did, did much more damage in the boy as he imagined. **_You'll have to think in the best manner to re-write you story. _**

Tsuna frowned. He didn't understand a word that Vongola Primo had said. So, he would really travel back in time, but for the past when Primo was still alive? Was he going to re-write his story through Primo's time? If so...

Tsuna's mouth trembled as he looked carefully at Primo's expression. It was still blank, but a small smile played on his lips.

_I-It can't be! Does he want me to go back in time and make sure that Vongola will never exist in the future?_

As he was about to ask Primo's true intentions and what he would really have to do, Primo started disappeared within air and the mysterious place they were in started to come down. A last meaningful stare was sent to him before Primo's last words echoed in the collapsing place.

**_Don't disappoint me, Decimo. _**

Before Tsuna could argue more, he was able to see Primo gently smiling at him as he said his last words.

**_Yes, don_****_'_****_t disappoint me. The decision you shall make will change everything. Farewell; this is the last time I_****_'_****_ll assist you, my descendant. _**

And with that, Tsuna felt like he was falling to a huge cliff with no bottom. Darkness was the last thing he saw.

* * *

><p>He was falling. For how long? He didn't know. It seemed like forever, if it could be possible. When he least expected, he had landed in a very rough way. Tsuna was lucky for not have broken a bone on his fall. His eyes were still shut, but he knew he was somewhere else — and he <em>mysteriously<em> didn't remember what happened moments ago. Why was he in a place like this? Had he been abducted?

There were loud sounds coming from all directions. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell he had landed on a grassy ground with twigs of trees everywhere. It was cold, even though he could tell it was sunny. Why though? Nothing was visible to him. He wouldn't be able to tell. Even so, the sounds of birds and the soft breeze were all sights of a sunny day.

_Get him!_, a man's voice called out. It was distant but it made the boy alert. If his instincts were right, that was a voice of a man who didn't belong to the normal society. It was voice filled with bloodlust.

His eyes popped open and he stood up in one movement. A sharp pain behind his head made him regret of getting up so sudden. His feet were tingling and his hands were as hard as rocks. What on earth had happened to him? His clothes were all tattered as if he had just come out of a fire, but there were no burns on his skin. Besides some scratches here and there, there wasn't nothing wrong with him. It should be fine to walk then.

Tsuna scanned the place with his sleepy eyes and caught notice of two things: he was in a forest, and there was a kind of war going on.

Carefully he started to walk. The feeling of walking on that steep ground wasn't making him any better; he could feel that it was a matter of time until his unsteady feet gave out. Before falling, Tsuna hold on to a tree to prevent himself to tumbling down. After resting a bit, and hearing everything in his surroundings, he took a deep breath and headed north. He should go to a safe place and being there any longer would only put himself into more danger.

How wrong he was. Going to that direction was something he could only understand days after.

Tsuna kept waking. He tugged his coach tightly around himself as he felt he was losing warmth. He was feverish, he could tell. Then, he stopped abruptly. Tsuna couldn't tell for sure why he had done that, but he was sure he had to. His Hyper Intuition proved to be right when some noises came from somewhere ahead of him.

He crouched down and crawled through the bushes, taking enough care to make no noise. Snapping a branch in two at a time like this wouldn't be good. _Definitely_. Whoever was ahead, there shouldn't be a good person. He could feel it.

When he was sure he had come as close as possible to the place, and at the same time far enough to not be discovered, Tsuna stopped crawling and pulled the bush aside so he could see what was happening. His eyes widened.

Four men were surrounding a boy. They all had guns aimed at the boy who could do nothing instead. He was surrounded, and injured for what Tsuna could presume.

For some odd reason, the boy seemed _oddly_ familiar to him. Even though he could only look at the boy's back, his light green hair and his way of shaking his whole body in fear brought back old memories.

"_Get ready, brat. This will serve Vongola Primo right_," one of the men said and unlocked the gun. The others only laughed and Tsuna felt rage boiling in his chest. It was a cowardly—they were about to kill a defenseless boy. And in _front_ of him. Acting on impulse, without thinking things through, he was already attacking one man from behind.

"Wha-?" It was all the man could say before he fell unconscious on the ground. The other three stared at Tsuna dumbfounded, still with their guns aimed at the green-haired boy.

An orange flame appeared on Tsuna's forehead and his eyes that were brown-honey moments ago were also orange now. His childlike eyes were narrowed, and he had a colder expression. He wasn't the innocent-looking boy anymore.

"Put your guns down, _now_," even his voice sounded fearsome and the men, even though they didn't understand what the boy said, shivered in fear. "I'll only say this time."

One of the three men, a brown-haired and tallest one, turned to others with his gun still hold up.

"_Did__…__did any of you understood what that brat said?_" he asked the others. The two others shook their heads. "_I thought so. But, no matter what he said, I think he want to pick a fight. What do you think?_"

The other two looked at each other and shook their heads simultaneously.

They grinned and took a step closer to the young boss. The three men passed by the green-haired boy without a second glance—because they had found a new prey now.

Tsuna hadn't expected this. He thought those men could back off once they saw how serious he was, but he guessed that there really are stupid people. Even feeling tired he faced the three men, merciless taking them down one after another.

After punching the last one, Tsuna crouched. He breathed erratically and beads of sweat just kept dripping from his face. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest as if it would jump out of it at any moment. And his right hand, which he used more for punching, was throbbing.

Tsuna couldn't bear the weight of his own body and he fell on the ground. Everything around him seemed to be spinning endlessly. He could hear for the first time the voice of the green-haired boy, who called him in a funny way. What was that again? It's like he was speaking another language now, though the boy was just in front of him!

_Strange_, he thought. Tsuna was sure he had seen that boy somewhere. He was strangely familiar.

But no matter what Tsuna thought, he had to admit one thing. The latest events were strange. He didn't seem to understand one bit of it. Perhaps Reborn was the one behind this. Perhaps he had been sent to a strange place _and_ alone. Reborn surely was behind this. Once he comes back he would be sure to want a full explanation for all of this. That infant, who was also a hitman and the best out there, couldn't just mess up with his life and put him in danger in a place he don't know.

Even so, why was it so painful whenever he tried to remember why was he there?

Tsuna was feeling weird. His body was warm and he was having strange hallucinations. Just now, he was almost sure, he had heard the green-haired boy say that help was coming. He _did_ say that a powerful friend of his would help him and that he couldn't die, not when he was his savior. He had even said that he would ask Primo for him to stay in the mansion with them. And he even said that Vongola would welcome him as a friend of the family.

Those words didn't hold any meaning to him. Powerful friend? Primo? Mansion? Vongola? What was that boy even talking about? So was he in Italy after all? Reborn must have sent him to Italy and now a strange green-haired boy was saying to him that Vongola would help him. Then it meant that the boy didn't know who he was. But that wasn't all. What did he mean by "Primo"? If he remembered well, Ninth's name wasn't _Primo_. That guy was talking nonsense. He was insane, because if he remembered well, the one who had the title of Primo was…

Decided that he had no time to be lying on the ground because of such injuries, Tsuna decided to open his eyes. First, a sharp pain on his abdomen struck on him and he groaned annoyed. Perhaps he was in a bad condition after all. He slowly opened his eyes, which had to be proven the right thing to do because the lightness of the place was heavy. Through his eyelashes he caught notice of three new figures staring him.

There was a dark-haired man with dark robe. His forehead was sweating bullets and he had blood on his hands, _his_ blood. The second person reminded him of Gokudera, except for his hair colour and a red tattoo on his right cheek. As soon as his eyes landed on the last one, they widened as much as possible.

It couldn't be true. That was just impossible. How could _that_ man be standing before him?

He must have gone insane as well. His lips trembled, and though his lips parted to speak, he couldn't get the words he wanted to utter to come out. Even so, that man spoke to him.

Tsuna refused that it could be true, but the pain he was feeling all over his body told him otherwise.

He couldn't take it any longer. His eyes insisted on closing without his permission and staying awake was proving to be extremely difficult. He gave in to the embracing darkness, but not before hearing the third person talking to him again.

The blond-haired man had caught his arm and Tsuna felt really safe. His hands were so warm and familiar. And he knew why.

If he remembered well, the one who had the title of Primo was…

…none other than the blond-haired man holding him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't ask more questions ever again. He was dying, wasn't he?

* * *

><p><strong>(Future — A week before current time in the past, some hours after the incident)<strong>

Gokudera was alone in his hospital bedroom. Reborn had left him with restricted orders to not leave his room until he said so.

Feeling alone in that dark room he couldn't help but think of one thing in particular. It couldn't get out of his mind; the image of Tsuna's face as he was shot and his body collapsing on the ground…lifeless. It was haunting him ever since he woke up in that hospital room. He remembered way too well what happened in those regretful seconds.

Everything was in slow motion for him. He saw it happening; he shouldered his gun but at the same time, he realized he couldn't fire. His fear of hitting Tsuna was bigger than his fear of seeing the enemy shot him. Gokudera couldn't forgive himself if he was the one to kill his boss. For a second, he pondered again about his chances, but he wasn't fast enough.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Gokudera's eyes met Tsuna's in that frozen moment. He saw his boss' face scrunch up in pain, and just after, blood came out from his mouth. He actually watched hopeless as his boss collapsed onto the ground as a broken toy. He watched as Tsuna's blood spread over his face, clothes and feet. But what actually shocked him was what he saw when he met Tsuna's eyes. Tsuna was terrified. In that moment, he thought he had heard him say:

"_I__'__m sorry__…_"

It took some time for him to realize what had just happened.

If he had been faster…it couldn't have happened. He wouldn't be in that dark hospital room feeling an indescribable pain in his chest. He wouldn't be feeling the strange sensation of a lump rising in his throat and he wouldn't even be feeling that unknown salty water coming out of his eyes. His hands wouldn't be shaking and his lips wouldn't be bleeding.

Every moment that same scene replayed in his mind, made he feel even more fear and think miserably of himself.

There was blood everywhere and even _in _him. He still remembered the sickly and strong smell of iron, and how fast it spread over the ground. How quick a person can lose blood. And how fragile a person can be.

His stomach roiled and he felt like he could vomit at any moment.

Something was wrong. Everything seemed _so_ wrong.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to destroy the hospital room he was in, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything besides staring at his own shaky hands.

The man he had sworn to protect for his entire life was gone. _Gone_.

_Why? _He wanted to ask, but couldn't get the words out. _Why was he so weak? __Why did he let things go that way?_

Gokudera was afraid that Reborn could be right. They couldn't know if Tsuna was alive, after all, they saw him dying. There was no way, even though he still refused it, that he could survive to that.

He regretted it. He regretted for being useless when his boss need him the most. He regretted for not doing anything to prevent this moment, and regretted even more that he had the guts to call himself Vongola Tenth's right-hand man. Just who was he fooling? He had no right to call himself Tenth's right-hand man when he couldn't even act as one.

Gokudera bit his bottom lip and looked down. Uri had gone out of his gear without his permission and was looking at him with sad eyes. Even his cat pitied him.

The silver-haired boy laid on his bed and patted Uri's head as a feeling of light-headedness hit him. His eyes were forcibly closing on their own.

If only there was something he could do to safe his boss, and friend, he would do it. _Anything_. Because he still had hope.

Without noticing, Gokudera slept and his body started glowing. He was there sleeping on his bed one moment and the other, the hospital's bedroom was empty.

* * *

><p><strong>(Future — A week before current time in the past, twelve hours after Gokudera disappeared) <strong>

Reborn was back to his infant form, but it didn't make him less intimidating. And Shoichi knew it _too_ well. It was like he was having a déjà vu as the infant pointed a green gun at the middle of his head. A quick death, but no less fearsome.

Shoichi swallowed heavily. He started counting his last seconds of life as he reported the latest news.

"A-According to a nurse it appears th-that Enma Kozato d-d-disappeared all of sudden," he stammered. "H-He was drinking a soda at the time."

He sighed and looked expectantly at Reborn. They were in a room with Yamamoto, Ryohei, Chrome and Hibari, who was at the furthest corner of the room, away from everyone else. The guardians of Simon family hadn't been notified about their boss whereabouts yet. It wouldn't be easy to explain how can a person disappear leaving nothing behind.

"So, you're saying me that after twelve hours since Gokudera disappeared, _now_ the same happened to Enma?" Reborn asked in a low but intimidating voice.

Shoichi gulped and shook his head. "E-Exactly."

_Oh_, his stomach ached. He really couldn't stand all that pressure. And everyone was staring at him, but the look that frightened him the most was from the infant. Those hungry eyes stared at him as if they were looking at his soul, searching for any lies and fears. And it was exactly what he was feeling now. _Fear_.

It had been his mistake to let Spanner go to sleep.

"This is getting out of hand," the usual cheerful Yamamoto spoke with a serious tone. "What do we do, kiddo?"

Reborn looked at any particular point of the room and let out a small sigh. _How troublesome_. So they were running out of time.

"Prepare ourselves, it seems that we're going to the past."

* * *

><p><strong>(Past — Vongola Primo's time)<strong>

Giotto wasn't having a nice time. In truth, he always does his best to avoid _this_ time.

He had been sitting in his office room for what seemed weeks, signing papers and more papers nonstop, which only gave him a headache at the end. The content of them was always the same: the cost of repairs of the mansion and the city. Even if he protected the city of other mafia families, if his guardians destroyed something there then of course he had to pay for it. But couldn't they slow down? Every week, at least twenty more of those papers were added to the always-crescent stack of papers.

_It could be worse_, it was always what he told himself as an attempt to cheer himself up. And indeed, it was worse.

He shouldn't have ignored his headache. It was probably trying to tell him that _the worst_ was about to come.

As soon as Alaude and G entered the room, Giotto knew that something very wrong was going on. His senses started screaming at him.

The all mighty Alaude had stepped on his office room accompanied with G. That was a rare sight.

Alaude was walking to his direction, and he had in his hands a pair of handcuffs. Meanwhile, G stood perfectly still in front of the door, as if he was blocking the only way out of the room. And whatever was coming, Giotto knew that jumping out of the window would be an insane plan.

The other man, however, kept going to his direction with the handcuffs still on hand, and Giotto could swear that it flashed dangerously _at _him.

"A-Alaude? What are you doing?" he asked, watching as the handcuffs were growing closer to him. And now, Alaude and his handcuffs were only a foot away from him. The silvery sheen of the object blinded him.

"Hey, don't come near me with that thing!" he scolded.

"Quiet, it's for your own good."

That was when he felt a strong pair of hands taking his left wrist and locking it together with the arm of the chair.

"Ouch! Alaude!" it took him several seconds to realize that he had been _tied_ to the chair. "You can't be serious! G, are you not going to do anything about _this_?"

He tried to raise his left hand a bit so that G could see his current situation, but it was impossible. The handcuffs wouldn't let his hand go too much up.

"Sorry." G shrugged.

It was then that Giotto understood what was happening, and it saddened him deeply.

"You…you conspired against me!" he accused, pointing a finger of his other hand at G. "Do you want me to stay here with this endless paperwork forever?"

G sighed and rubbed his temple. He truly was feeling like he had gone too far this time. Maybe Primo wouldn't forgive him after this, but it was necessary. They were running out of time to the mafia party.

"No, of course not," he answered truthfully. "But if that will make it easier for you to stay here and sign all of this damn papers, then it can't be helped."

"You…! You traitor!" Giotto tried in vain to get rid of the handcuffs, but as expected, he couldn't even loose its lock. Alaude had done a great job as always.

If only he had his gloves with him…maybe the heat could melt the handcuff.

"I'll take this with me," Alaude took his gloves out of a drawer of his mahogany desk and walked out of the room, leaving G alone with Giotto.

G grinned and prepared to leave the poor blond man alone.

"You know you can ask me for help," he suggested. Knowing his best friend well, he knew that Giotto would fall for it.

Upon hearing the word _help, _a ray of hope lit inside Giotto. It was just what he needed—help from someone.

"Then…help me G!" he asked almost pleading. The young boss didn't want to be left alone with that fearful amount of paper.

But life can be cruel sometimes.

As soon as he noticed a smirk growing on G's face, Giotto knew that he was doomed.

"But I'm sorry," his tone was like that of someone who was truly sorry, but his expression said otherwise. G slowly opened the door behind him and slipped a bit out. "I just remembered that I need to do something first. Maybe later?"

G didn't wait for an answer and shut the door. But he heard a faint shout coming from inside the office room.

"G…!"

Not too far from there, a boy suddenly appeared in the middle of the mansion's garden. He groaned in pain and rubbed the back of his head. The juice box that was in his hand was now pouring strawberry juice on the ground.

He awkwardly got on his feet and wiped the dirt off his clothes. Scanning the area, the boy came up with a conclusion that he wasn't in Japan anymore. The renaissance-style mansion was definitely not Japanese. And that weather! He knew it too well to know that he was overseas. As to how, he wondered about it. In the last recent memory he had, he was at the Namimori Hospital and buying a drink.

How could he be miles away from Japan when minutes ago he was there? It was too strange.

Deciding that he should explore the place, the ginger boy walked to a warehouse nearby. There was a man sitting in front of it and he seemed to be taking a nap. It should be fine to ask for directions.

The boy nudged lightly on the man's arm, but he didn't wake. Realizing that the man snored highly, he reached the conclusion that it would take more than a slight nudge to wake the man. And so did the boy, he poked insistently and more strongly than before. His efforts paid off as soon as he saw that the man's eyelids twitched and he slowly opened his eyes.

It took some seconds before the man realized he had been sleeping on duty and quickly got up from his position. After doing his ritual of straightening his clothes and checking over his face searching for any sign that he had been sleeping, the man finally caught notice of whom had woken him.

"Er, hello..." The boy said shyly in Italian. "Could you tell me where I am?"

The man's eyes widened and his jaw slowly dropped.

"G-G-Guards!" The man cried out. "An intruder!"

The boy's eyes went as wide as the man's. "EHH?!"

He held both his hands at his face and frenetically waved them.

"N-No! W-Wait! I'm not...!" The boy, Enma Kozato, started sweating too much for a day not much hot as he vainly tried to explain himself.

Not long after, Enma was surrounded on all sides. He knew that once things had gotten to that point, it would be difficult to convince the men that he had come in peace and actually didn't know where he was.

_Why am I in Italy really? _Enma wondered as he let out a nervous laugh. The men surrounding him glared at him with fierce eyes and they had guns pointed at him.

Meanwhile, tied to a chair and amid huge piles of yellowed papers and in the light of chandeliers, Giotto read and signed nonstop mission reports and bills he had yet to pay.

The young boss was already conformed that he'd have to stay there until he finished at least half of all the paperwork, which was around 500 papers in total. He didn't need break. The faster he finished his work, the better.

There were million of things going through his mind as he was doing his work. Giotto still wanted to have a brief conversation with Tsunayoshi and he feared that he'd be feeling out of place in an unknown country. He felt an urge to talk to the boy and ask him who he really was, but at the same time he knew he couldn't. He'd said he would wait for a better time.

He rested his pen on the desk and took his pocket watch, which was resting inside of his waistcoat pocket and opened it. Soon would be dinnertime and he was starving. With that handcuff around his left hand, he couldn't get out of the room without dragging the chair along. And obviously that was out of question, that chair was heavy. Giotto would only hope that a blessed soul would enter the room and take him out of there.

That day, luck was at his side.

Giotto barely had time to react. His office's door had been rudely opened and a thud of wood hitting the wall echoed through the room. His eyes caught the flick of a person going to his direction, but he couldn't see clearly who it was. A thump on his desk brought him back to his senses.

"Boss! I came to announce that we have an invasion on the east wall!"

Giotto turned to face his young subordinate, who should have the same age as Lampo. He quickly looked out the window. East wall; there was a warehouse and his precious garden nearby. His flowers were in danger.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned his gaze at the teenager.

"And whose family is it from?" he asked quickly, trying not to think of _that_ family.

The young subordinate looked nervous for a moment and Giotto wondered if he had been rude to him. He was sure that his voice was not very loud. Sensing his subordinate's discomfort, Giotto got up from his chair and placed a hand on his shoulder encouraging him to speak. This time he _really_ was being polite.

"Yes, Lui? Please continue." And he even preferred calling him by his nickname as to calm him.

Lui bit his lower lip and looked in a shy way at the floor.

"Actually…it's complicated…" Lui faltered and looked around nervously. "We…we have no idea which family the boy is."

Giotto looked at him with surprise on his face and frowned. "Boy?"

Lui shook his head frantically. Even he was confused and if he hadn't seen with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed in what he had seen.

"This boy, does he look familiar? What is his appearance?" Giotto hurried to ask. "But first I need a way to get this thing out of me!"

As he said that, he remembered that there was a gun in one of the drawers of his desk. He quickly picked it up and aimed at the handcuffs. If he had any luck he would get hurt. He shot and everything was fine now.

Giotto jumped out of his chair and motioned for Lui to follow. In an instant they were crossing a door on one of sides of the mansion and going straight to the east wall.

"Then, how's this boy?" Giotto asked again as they ran.

And again, Lui had remained silent to his question, not knowing what to answer. It only made curiosity grown in Giotto.

"What happened?"

Lui winced and shook his head.

"Boss…I don't know how to say this but this boy looks like that red-haired man who came to visit you the other day."

In the same instant, Giotto stopped running and stared dumbfounded at Lui. "What did you say?"

* * *

><p>Enma was panicking. He tried several times and in several ways to explain that he wouldn't be a threat to them, but those men pointing guns at him didn't seem to understand, even though he was speaking in Italian. Some of them looked at him with a weird look, in astonishment, as if they knew him from somewhere. But Enma was sure to have never seen them.<p>

Would they be from an enemy family, so that's why they were looking at him that way? But more importantly, how on earth did he get in there? In Italy no less?

He was about to ask the men questions when he spotted two other men running to the circle surrounding him.

_Must be someone important, _he thought feeling a bit relieved and panicked at the same time.

The two men only stopped running when they were a few feet away from him. Enma widened his eyes when he recognized the face of one of them.

"No way…!" he muttered under his breath.

He felt dizzy as the man cautiously approached him a little more and looked at him with probably the same expression he should be doing.

Giotto took one more step closer, not believing in his eyes and stopped.

"Cozarto?" he asked in an insecure way.

Enma began sweating a much more than before and the only thought crossing his mind was:

_Oh shit._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This fanfiction has made its first year of anniversary on December. And it has _just_ six chapters. That's... a little bit disappointing. I think I'll decrease the number of words per chapter, so that I'll update more often. Because my resolution for this year is: reach at least chapter 15. Will I be able to? Raise your bets!**

**I just lost my beta-reader, is there someone damn good in grammar that's willing to be my beta? Let me know, it can be by review or PM.**

**And please don't forget to review. I really appreciate your thoughts. See you soon!**

**PS: This chapter on Word has 6,666 words. _Weird. _**


	7. Two More Days Left

****You'll have to forgive me for the grammar mistakes, but the beta-ed version will be uploaded later. Yes, I've a new beta: Ankou13 will be my new beta from now on. Reading the chapter first than anyone else might not be so bad. ****

* * *

><p><strong>DISCLAIMER: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn but if did, I would write a whole arc only with the first generation of Vongola.<strong>

**Important: **"Speaking in Japanese."

"_Speaking in Italian._" (May appear as merely flashbacks)

_Thoughts_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Seven:<strong>__ Two More Days Left_

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><p>Giotto walked in circles. G could swear that any time he would dig a hole in the floor if he continued with that, but he didn't do anything to stop the daydreaming man. All guardians were present in the room, and all without exception were tense at the presence of a mere boy. However, the boy in question wasn't a mere boy at all.<p>

In the middle of the room, sitting in a chair, and strongly tied onto it, was Enma Kozato. Supposing he wasn't mistaken, it had been hours that he was like that—tied to a chair, and with all those men looking at him as if he was a creature from another world. Enma hadn't had a chance to explain himself, mostly not when he inexplicably looked so much like Cozart Shimon, his ancestor and friend of Vongola Primo. And obviously when he tried to explain himself and ensure them he meant no harm, it had the opposite effect.

"I must've gone insane," said Giotto minutes later after so much silence. "I _really _need a doctor now."

And again no one said anything, because they all thought the same.

Although they were aware of the loud steps the blond man was giving, no one took their eyes off the ginger boy. The boy, who acclaimed to be Enma Kozato, and who coincidentally had a last name that seemed much like Shimon boss' first name, had decided to play dumb and not tell them how he had managed to invade the Vongola's territory when no less than hundred men heavily guarded it.

G supposed that saying he didn't know how he had gotten there was a way to refuse to tell them the truth. And maybe, he supposed again, the boy was covering for someone.

As for Giotto, if his life wasn't messed up enough in the recent days, especially after Tsunayoshi Sawada appeared, everything was getting even worse. Behind his back, G and Knuckle exchanged glances. What else should they expect? Because honestly, they no longer doubted anything else would happen. They wouldn't even doubt that a boy like Alaude would appear, or even worse, a boy like Daemon appeared. That, perhaps, would be the most insane thing they would ever see in their not-so-common lives.

Giotto kept walking in circles while muttering incoherently. The poor man must've really gone mad, which only made G even more concerned—for they both, actually. How could he possibly talk about the Gokudera boy? If Giotto hadn't gone mad yet, surely after hearing that there was a third boy who looked like one of them would be a fatal blow to him. He then decided he wouldn't talk about Gokudera, but the matter couldn't be postponed for much longer. After they returned the party he would've to tell Giotto.

The silence perpetuated in the room, expect for a few occasional sounds that Giotto's shoe sole produced on the floor, it was then that Alaude decided to speak.

"Primo, we must question him more _persuasively_, if you know what I mean," he said, his eyes glittering as he looked at Enma, who trembled in return. The poor boy had been afraid of hearing they would take more drastically ways of making him talk, and there it was.

Giotto then stopped wandering and stared at Alaude with a thoughtful look, as if contemplating carefully about the suggestion. It was then that Enma felt truly desperate. He didn't know how much Alaude was _competent_ in his line of work, but if he was as much as Adelheid was, in the lack of better words, so he was really screwed. It would be better if he started talking _and _soon.

However, what would he say exactly? He had tried to say that he knew nothing of how he'd gotten there, but no one believed in him. That was somewhat expected; even _he _wouldn't believe it.

Enma vainly and slowly tried to get rid of the tight rope around him, so that no one would realise he was trying to escape, which wouldn't be a difficult thing to do if he hadn't handcuffs around his wrists as well. How could he fight, if it came to it, with tied hands? Certainly his powers wouldn't be useful now when he needed it most.

He didn't want to startle the Vongola Primo and his guardians and make them misunderstand the situation.

_"Tsuna must've gone to the past," said Reborn looking at them with a deadly serious face as they rarely had seen before. His gaze settled on Enma even more that the boy wished to and returned to look at the guardians. "Whether he's alive or not, and being realistic, that stupid student of mine _is_ dead, it's undeniable that his body has gone into the past of Vongola Primo. Shortly before he died, Tsuna muttered 'Primo'."_

Enma looked back at Vongola Primo, aka Giotto, while he remembered of the last meeting he had with Reborn and Tsuna's guardians. It was unlikely that Tsuna was still alive because he saw him give his last breath. He had come too late.

He still had hopes like everyone else, of course, that could have happened something unbelievable and Tsuna had somehow been saved at the last possible moment. However, they couldn't be bound by something so uncertain as a wishful thought. Deep down though, Enma knew it was impossible that kind of miracle could happen. Tsuna was dead, and he would never be able to forgive himself for that.

The Shimon boy looked at the floor as he felt nauseated. He still remembered how Tsuna's left arm was, where probably one of the bullets hit, and how sickly bloodied it was and how it was lying at an impossible angle. The brown-honey eyes that many times before welcomed him when he most needed now were sickeningly hollow and with no light in them; his already pale skin was with an even more ghostly colour, which made Enma think that any sudden movement when moving Tsuna could break him. What good would it do creating false hopes when they all had seen the same thing he had?

Tsuna was dead and that emptiness in his chest would never disappear.

"Talk," G ordered, getting so close to him that Enma could smell the tobacco coming from his breath. "I want names. C'mon, tell me which family you come from. Don't try to play the smarty with me. I know you're no ordinary kid."

"G, you're scaring him!" Primo intervened, placing a hand on the redhead guardian's shoulder.

"Damn, Giotto!" G was irritated and rudely took Giotto's hand off his shoulder. "Don't you see he's dangerous? It's because of this carefree attitude of yours that I might end up dying of concerns someday, or worse, _you_ will end up being killed by one of _these _someday!"

Asari stepped forward not showing any concern on his face. He walked slowly to Enma's direction, ignoring the deadly glare that G threw at him.

"I think we're all very tense," he said stopping in front of the boy who resembled Cozart Shimon. Asari smiled calmly at Enma and looked at Giotto, who was staring at him with a questioning look. "How about we take a cup of tea? It'd be lovely."

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><p>Tsuna was restless. He got up from bed and walked toward the door, taking extreme care to open it so that it wouldn't make any loud sound. He couldn't stay in that room for any longer or he would go mad. The boy was not stupid; he knew he didn't have any right to demand anything, but he wanted to know why there were screams and why suddenly the mansion seemed so vivid. His curiosity knew no bounds.<p>

As he opened the door, Tsuna was careful enough to look at both sides of the corridor to see if there was someone walking by. Fortunately, the corridor was clear. He put one foot to the outside, still taking extreme care to not make any noise, and quickly left the room closing the door behind him. Tsuna let out a relieved sigh and chose one of the ways to go on.

_"It would be better if you didn't wander," Asari warned. "You're still very weak."_

Tsuna mentally apologised for his behaviour and kept going. His feet immediately stopped when he heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from a corridor perpendicular to what he was, and he automatically wondered what was that fuss about. Tsuna quickly tried to hide himself behind the red curtain and hear what they said.

"…the boss must be really confused…" one said.

"And who wouldn't be?" retorted another one. "I can't blame him, anyway. Finding a guy with the same face as one of your friends is not something that anyone would take good, it's no wonder that the boss was static!"

"It's true…" a third person said.

"Do you think they've already taken some providences? I mean, Cozart Shimon _must _be informed of this!" asked the first person. Unfortunately, Tsuna couldn't hear the answer to the question.

Tsuna's eyes widened and he suddenly felt as if the room's temperature had decreased. Stunned, he went out from behind the curtain and continued through the way he was going before. A thousand thoughts went passing through his mind at the moment. Had he heard right? There was someone with a similar appearance to one of Primo's friends? And none other than Cozart Shimon, the Shimon's first boss…he couldn't believe it. Then again, he wasn't stupid. He knew what two plus two was.

Frowning, Tsuna quickened his pace and started running. He had no time to lose; if his Hyper Intuition was correct, and he expected it to be, then Enma had been transported to the past as well.

_Enma...please be all right!_

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><p>"I'm sick of waiting!" G punched the wall and walked with long strides towards Enma. The redhaired man's face was redder than his hair such was his anger. "This is going nowhere!"<p>

"Maa, maa," said Asari trying to calm their spirits. They were trying in a calm and civilized way to get Enma tell them as to how he had succeeded in entering with the greatest ease in Vongola's territory, but they hadn't been successful so far. The Asian man knew G was about to explode if no action was taken, and Alaude didn't look one bit better either. The man should be trembling in expectation to interrogate the poor lad. Asari wouldn't want to be in Giotto's shoes now. "I'm sure Enma-kun would appreciate it if we were more friendly."

That caused a vein on G's forehead to comically pop up.

"More friendly, you say?" he asked in a dangerously low and slow tone. "How the hell could we be _more _friendly than we _are _already, huh?"

"Rushing will not get us anywhere," said Knuckle quietly. The brunette man knew very well how rushing things only made things worse. "We cannot force the boy to say something he does not want."

"I've to agree with Knuckle," said Giotto nodding fervently.

The blond man had been thinking over and over again, and he really didn't want to force the boy into something unpleasant. If he agreed with Alaude and let Enma for him to deal with, he should only be doing something he'd rather avoid. He wanted to be a good boss, not a fearsome one.

G sent a withering look in his direction, "And it's because of you that we haven't get an answer from him until now!"

"_My fault?_" Giotto pointed at himself, his face with a puzzled expression. "And how is that my fault?"

"And you still ask me?" G was exasperated. Sometimes Giotto could be so stupid, and it hadn't changed even now. "If you weren't so _trustful _we wouldn't be in this situation, with that other suspect boy being treated as a guest! And now you want to do the same with _this _one?"

Upon hearing that, something clicked inside of Enma's mind. They surely couldn't be talking about…

"E-Excuse me…" he said shyly. "What do you mean by 'another suspect boy'?"

G clicked his tongue and looked at the ginger boy with a cold stare, "It's got nothing to do with you."

A long and lazy sigh was heard throughout the room and everyone looked towards where the sound had come from. Lampo was lying on one of the chairs and seemed extremely bored.

"Can't you just finish with it?" he asked as got up. "Doesn't matter; I think I'm gonna take a walk around."

Lampo raised one of his arms and slowly waved at them when he opened the door.

"Lampo!" Giotto called out, but it was too late, Lampo had already closed the door behind himself.

"Don't you see?" said G after a few seconds of silence. "That's what I'm talking about! You're too soft!"

"I see no harm in it," interrupted Asari. "Primo is acting accordingly the way he thinks is right, and I agree with his methods."

"Here you go again!" said the red-haired man in a bored tone. "Don't you feel scared for him? You can't be serious!"

"Scared of what?" asked the Asian man innocently.

At the moment, G thought he would lose himself. Sometimes, he really wondered if that aloof man would properly protect Giotto when he needed the most. Sensing it was about to interfere, Knuckle placed a hand on G's shoulder and sent the man a meaningful glare. G understood what that simple act meant and he restrained himself of losing what little patience he still had. That wasn't the right moment to revert to his old self, he told himself.

"I agree with Asari," commented the priest man. "We've to have more faith in Giotto."

While his guardians discussed about his person as if he were not there, Giotto immersed in his inner world while looking at Enma. Looking from afar, Enma was a pretty ordinary kid. A little too skinny, but still an ordinary kid. The fact that he had almost the same face as Cozart was disturbing, and for a moment he thought he saw in those red eyes a different glow—as if Enma Kozato knew him. It might sound crazy, but Giotto would never be mistaken in that. He had seen that same look in another boy, and that even he couldn't deny, the other boy also was as suspect as Enma.

Somehow or another, it was like Enma Kozato was just like Tsunayoshi Sawada. Both had appeared in town suspiciously and no one had seen them. However, in Enma's case, how was he able to infiltrate into Vongola's territory? An ordinary boy, for as much hectic as one would be, wouldn't be able to do that. That is, not when there were hundreds of guards monitoring the mansion's surroundings.

Giotto had to admit, Enma Kozato wasn't an ordinary boy really.

"Oh, no," said G interrupting his thoughts. "I know that look, Primo. What're you thinking?"

"Something's wrong, Primo?" asked Knuckle.

Giotto was starting to believe that maybe Enma Kozato had some connection with Tsuna. For him, there were not such things as coincidences and there were many to just ignore.

"Perhaps…" he pondered, bringing a hand to his chin while examining all the possibilities carefully. "Perhaps Alaude's right."

G and Knuckle looked at him as if he had gone mad, because it was the first time that their boss agreed so fast on letting Alaude take control. Usually, they would argue for hours before Giotto reluctantly agreed with letting Alaude use his own methods. And when Giotto agreed, it was because it was their last resource. Asari didn't expect this sudden action either; he only frowned and didn't say anything. However, Daemon that was silent the whole time was the one who spoke first.

"Hm, it seems that this time we're thinking as one," he noted, giving his characteristic chuckle. "Nonetheless, may I ask why there was this change of opinion and so fast, as it seems, Primo?"

Giotto shrugged, "Intuition."

Daemon widened his eyes and chuckled higher this time. Primo never failed to surprise him, and perhaps that was why he admired so much the other man.

"I see…" he said, nodding to himself. "As expected, you're such an interesting man, Primo. Very well…"

Daemon walked toward the door, looking for one last time at Giotto before leaving the room laughing.

"As it's already decided on how we'll handle things, then I'll take my leave now. If you need anything," he added looking at Enma, who trembled at his gaze. Looking at Daemon only brought him bad memories that he was sure it would take a lifetime to forget, if he ever forget that is. "You know how to call me."

A fine mist suddenly appeared in the room and in the next instant Daemon was no longer there.

"He never stops disappearing like that," said Knuckle shaking his head.

"I think it's kind of cool," said Asari simple-mindlessly.

"And I think it's creepy," G corrected almost automatically. No matter how many times he saw Daemon disappearing like that, with that mist surrounding the mysterious man as if it was always there to begin with, he'd always find it strange.

"So," Alaude's voice echoed through the room way higher than normal, sending chills through G, Asari, Giotto, Knuckle and Enma's backs. "I can proceed from here with my own methods, I presume?"

Alaude directed his gaze to Enma as he spoke the last sentence. His cold and observant eyes seemed to look through Enma, as if searching for his darkest secrets. Enma came to think that he was being sucked into that pair of ice-blue eyes, such was the intensity of their glare contest. It was then that the other man finally broke the contact between them.

The boy then looked at the Vongola's boss. He, too, stared at him, but unlike how Alaude did, Primo started at him with a gentle and concerned expression. He didn't want to cause any harm on him and Enma could see that.

"Go ahead," said Giotto fearfully. He only hoped that he was doing the right thing. "You may do as you please, but please, don't traumatise him too much. This is the only thing I ask of you, Alaude."

A shadow of a smirk appeared at the corners of the other blond man's mouth and at the moment Giotto had his doubts whether he should've entrusted such task to Alaude. Once with permission to do as he pleases, Alaude wouldn't be able to control himself with a "law breaker" in his hands—he would give nightmares to the poor person if possible and act like a devil until he obtained satisfactory answers, he was that kind of person, and obviously, we would do all that without dirtying his hands in the process.

"Don't worry, I will not traumatise him _too _much."

Giotto then realised he had just left an innocent life fall into the claws of an unstoppable beast.

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><p>"<strong><em>Talk<em>**," Alaude ordered him with a dangerous tone.

Enma had been taken to a special room where he supposed to be the room where Alaude should make interrogations _more _persuasively. He was sitting in a chained chair, heavily chained on the wrists and ankles, in a way it would be impossible for him to get out. Alaude had placed a table in front of him, where from there he could see his Shimon ring resting right on the middle of it. The ring seemed to be glaring back at him, as if daring him to take it and use against the other man in order to get out of danger. His fingers twitched in anticipation, but there was nothing he could do in that way. The room he was in was disturbingly devoid of furniture, there was a stack of papers neatly lined here and there, but nothing else that could drawn your attention.

He was really nervous. He didn't know how to act in such situation, after all, he had never travelled through time. What was he supposed to speak or not speak _and _how would he act like? They were vital questions. In general, he knew he shouldn't mention he was from the future; it would only cause a great mess if he did. He had to act as if he were from their time, at least to gain their trust. It was imperative that he knew how to act as such.

Enma looked to his left, where in one corner of the room was an equally red-haired person, but this person's red hair was lighter, almost as if it was pink. Enma knew they called him "G" and if his memory didn't fail him, G was the right-hand man of Vongola Primo. And this same G person stared at him with fierce eyes, clearing seeing him as a threat.

The boy felt his palms sweating as he watched by two pairs of hungry eyes. His throat was dry and his feet, despite being chained by the ankle to the chair making it harder to move, were moving interruptedly. He decided, in the end, that he should make up a story. It's not like they would know that he was lying.

After telling his story, Alaude slightly narrowed his ice-blue eyes and muttered something under his breath.

"So you have no recollections about the incident whatsoever?" he asked.

Enma felt intimidated by the look that man gave him. He could've sworn that those cold eyes could see more than what it seemed to, and Enma truly feared that his thoughts could be read.

"Yes," he lied.

However, it was not entirely a lie. He really didn't remember how he could've travelled back in time, since not long ago he was in Japan. Somehow, he knew it had something to do with Tsuna, but _how _this and that were connected he had no idea.

Enma quickly looked away when he heard footsteps hurrying to his direction and was startled when suddenly a pair of strong hands grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

"Quit bitching, will you? I know you're lying!" G shook him even more and would've shaken him much more until he obtained a satisfactory answer if it was not for Alaude interrupting him.

G looked at Alaude in a maniac way as if he was about to kill someone at any minute. At that moment, Enma only wanted to leave the room before the worst happened and G and Alaude hurried to their necks. He didn't want to be in the crossfire if it came to happen.

"Cool down your head and if you can't, then don't come back," said Alaude with an expression even more threatening than that of G. "I also need some time to rest, then it'll be a good idea to take a break."

Enma felt like he had lost a few years of his life when he saw the two men leaving the room. He was finally alone.

_Now,_ he thought, looking at the door. _What do I do? These chains…they won't let go of me so easily…_

Enma tried again to loose the chains, but he was not successful. He was strongly chained to the chair; only someone else could get rid of it for him. However, it's not like someone would magically appear before him and free him from there, it would be foolish of him to believe in that. With some luck, perhaps, Tsuna would still be alive before that could happen.

How surprised would he get if he knew Tsuna was really alive and was currently heading to where he was.

Tsuna had finally managed to get downstairs unnoticed, but he knew he had to be faster if he didn't want anyone noticing he was missing from his room. There were still two more floors before he could get to the dungeons, where luckily, he had heard one of the guards say that the attacker who looked a lot like Cozart Shimon was being held in.

Tsuna couldn't be sure that the attacker could be Enma, but he was sure there were not many people around with a pair of red eyes as unique as that of Enma and Cozart Shimon's. It didn't cost anything and try.

Meanwhile, in a small hotel room in the town centre, was a silver-haired boy. He stormed out of bed and threw a sharp look out of the window. It was evening, he realised. The city outside gradually began to get dark and only a few lights, seeing as electric light was still little used at the time for being a new invention yet, illuminated certain points of the steep streets. It was at twilight, when light and darkness vying space, that activities like running away from a hotel room without anyone noticing would be the perfect time to do so.

Gokudera gave a small smile as approached the window. He even let out a curse and a moan in pain when he put one of his feet out of the window, seeing as his hurt foot didn't stand much pressure too soon. He didn't care though. The pain he felt in his foot was small if compared to the pain he was feeling in his chest.

The yellowish buildings of long green windows, which each one of them had approximately five stories, and this number varied in some of them, were glued together as if space were something precious in the city and they fought for it. He could easily jump from one window to another and no one would notice it. Looking down, Gokudera swallowed. It would be a terrible fall if he were to slip in the time to jump. Maybe he would break just a few bones, that is, if he survived a fall of more than thirty feet. He shook his head in an attempt to erase such thoughts and inhaled deeply the air. He gritted his teeth and stared at the window he'd be jumping at. It was now or never.

Gokudera jumped.

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><p>Back at the mansion, Giotto was sitting restless in a chair in the conference room. Every time he had to think of something really serious he would go there. His private office, where he spent much of his time signing papers that he often wondered why he should sign, wasn't one of the most comfortable places to think. The smell of books and papers was like a drug that wouldn't let him think, on the contrary, it made him not think. His room was very large and it didn't have anything that reminded of himself, thus not a comfortable place either. Even the tearoom, a place he loved to spend his time and look at a small part of his garden while drinking a tasty tea, wasn't the ideal place to think. However, the conference room was an exception. There, he never felt completely alone.<p>

It was there, in the conference room, that he and his guardians spent a lot of their time in most cases. It was there that they discussed in private famiglia affairs and how to solve them, and it was in there, though his guardians weren't with him at the time, that Giotto felt less lonely.

The long mahogany table contained the memory of each one of the meetings they've had in the last years and the wood, though it was a little worn now, was smooth to his touch. Giotto couldn't find a better place to think.

He laid his head on the table and let out a soft sigh. There were many times that Giotto wondered if perhaps he thought too much on others rather than himself, but he never refused to help anyone. It was so normal to him, helping people, that it was just like breathing. And maybe that was why he always faced every single night severe headaches. This time, nothing bothered him more than the mysterious two boys and how they came here.

First, Tsunayoshi Sawada, who slightly resembled himself in appearance, had appeared mysteriously in town without anyone seeing him and had saved Lampo's life. The boy had fighting experience, Giotto could tell, otherwise he couldn't have defeated four mafia men. The boy despite not seeming like a threat to anyone, there was something about him that Giotto couldn't put his finger on. His Intuition seemed to "like" him and he liked him _too, _but he still couldn't help but feel curious about his back-story.

Second, Enma Kozato, another boy that had also mysteriously appeared in town without anyone noticing, and more, he managed to break into the mansion's territory disarmed without anyone detecting him. Giotto didn't know many people capable of such a prodigy. And if that weren't enough, Enma looked like a younger copy of his friend Cozart Shimon. Unless Cozart was hiding something from him, like a younger brother or even possibly a distant cousin practically identical to him, then he was completely lost on the matter. How should he handle this kind of situation? He hadn't be told that he would've to face situations like this when he created a vigilant group. Then again, he would never guess that the Vongola would grow so big.

Third, Giotto prayed that there wouldn't be a third case like those two.

Feeling too worried, Giotto got up from his seat as fast as a bullet and directed a long glare at the conference room's door. Doing nothing was just making his condition worse. Maybe he should pay someone a visit. Deciding it was exactly what he should do, his hand went to the knob's direction and turned it.

_I feel like Tsunayoshi and I need to have a talk._

Tsuna, however, was already far away from his room at the time. At any moment he could get to the dungeons, everything was going perfectly fine until now, and perhaps that was the reason as to why he was so suspicious. Usually, at a time like this that he would be caught red-handed. It's not like he was expecting someone to catch him, that would be ridiculous, but he knew very well that not always things go the way we plan. The only thing he could do was get full alert at his surroundings and sharp his ears at any different sound; that wasn't so difficult to do since his Intuition had been alerting him that something could happen.

He set foot on the last step of the stairs and stared at the dark corridor in front of him. The only source of illumination were small chandeliers hanging on the walls—each separated from the other by a large distance, which didn't make much proper enlightenment to the already scary and cold place. Decided that there was no turning back now that he had come so far, Tsuna headed to the very first and only door in there. The exciting sensation was giving him goosebumps—it was like there were butterflies flying uncontrollably inside of his stomach right then.

The brunette's hand touched slightly on the metallic and cold knob and for a moment it twitched. Actually, his hands and possibly his entire body were shaking. He didn't know if it was from excitement or fear from doing something he shouldn't do, but there was one thing he was sure about—whoever was on the other side of that door, it was someone like himself and also shared similarities with both famiglies first bosses. The boy then took a deep breath, regaining courage, and turned the knob to the side, revealing the room and the person who was inside.

His mouth failed to cop with what was going through his mind at the moment and his body—if it wasn't unsteady enough—seemed that would collapse any moment onto the ground. He often would erroneously act stupidly in such situation, even more when he was in such joy, but even in this he failed. Instead, with unsteady feet and watering eyes, the boy headed in the other person's direction who was also as much surprised as he was. Just as he was about to produce any sound with his mouth, his trained ears caught notice of the sound of footsteps entering the same room.

"What are _you _doing here?"

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><p><strong>AN: There's no much action in this chapter, but I'm pretty satisfied with the final result. I thought it'd turn out a shitty chapter but I'm glad it didn't. Less than a month to go until my birthday, I think it was the reason as to why I was so fired up as I wrote the last paragraphs of this chapter.**

**Well, I'm glad that people are enjoying more and more this story and I just hope that I'll live up to your expectations. I'll love to read what you think of this chapter, please review and until next chapter.**


	8. The Prelude of the End - Part I

****A/N: I suppose I should apologise for my lateness, but things got really busy and then I got myself in an accident and couldn't write much. I'm sorry, even though I promised myself to post **a chapter a month. I ended up missing five months! Also, I'm really sorry if this chapter feels rushed or crappy...I'm feeling like shit. ******

******And thank you for all the reviews (wow!), follows and favorites. It helped me so much in my recuperation.******

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><p><strong><em>Chapter Eight:<em>**_ The Prelude of the End - Part I_

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><p>The room was strangely cold and stuffy, however, despite this, his hands were sweating like crazy. He would wipe it away if he could. In fact, nothing else would make him more comfortable at the moment. As he was now, it was nearly impossible considering that his arms were chained in each arm of the chair. He also felt that if, perhaps, he wanted to go to the restroom, he'd have to endure. Therefore, his thirst was not so important. He should bear it. <em>No<em>, he _would have_ to bear it. Even though, no matter what, he desperately wanted something to quench his thirst.

Almost as in reflex, he lifted his hand, only to remember that he couldn't. His throat was dry; he wanted to massage it. Pushing the unpleasant matter to the side, the boy occupied his mind with something that required better of his time.

_How in the holy earth had he gotten in the past? _He nearly voiced his thoughts. Obviously he knew that he wasn't the right person to know the answer to that, given that even the specialist ones didn't know yet. Though, he couldn't help but keep wondering. Supposing Tsuna somehow managed to live after being shot in many places, then he'd also suppose that he managed to go to the past through a wish — Vongola ring must have something to it. If that was so, what does _he_ have something to it? He wasn't part of Vongola family, just a friend's. Their rings, though they did have some similarities here and there, were essentially different.

He thought of the implications of going to the past and as he presumed, it was for an undetermined time. It was just so wrong. Everything could happen and it'd be disastrous. _Well_... he though, it was not like it wasn't disastrous enough already.

He brought to his mind the recent events that happened ever since he stepped in the sole of the 19th century. He would've endured the presence of a mysterious mafia family attacking him, obviously because he was in the wrong, not the otherwise as one would've assumed the situation would be — for as much cowardly as it seemed. As a mafia man, he had been trained for many different situations he'd one day face. However, he hadn't been trained for something like that. The fatal blow came when he saw who was the one in the command of those mafia men surrounding him like hungry wolves. He couldn't let the matter slip past so easily. Hadn't he gotten in a rather strange predicament with Tsuna and his family some months ago, he wouldn't have known who the man a few feet away from him was. At first, he assumed that he somehow had died. It was a normal assumption. A minute ago he was at the hospital buying a drink for himself, after paying a visit to Vongola guardians, and now there he was...in the past of Vongola Primo. Anyone with the head in its place would think in the worst-case scenario. In this case, the worst-case scenario was seeing a dead man after he himself supposedly died.

Then, all of sudden, he let out a little laugh. Lowering his head, he wiped a single tear coming out from his right eye. A ghost of a smile appeared at the corner of his lips and he sighed briefly. He probably must have felt the same way as Tsuna did, he was sure of it. The both of them had the tendency to act alike when they faced _strange_ situations.

He still remembered the coldness of his hands, his shaky lips and his wild thoughts at the time — he was almost sure that they must have pretty much the same reactions. The face he made when Vongola Primo gracefully stormed in between the guards of the mansion must have comical, he thought in shame. He wasn't at fault, after all, he had been caught off-guard. Seeing someone who was surely dead in their time is not an easy thing. He didn't know what to do. Heck, he had almost had a panic attack and fainted! He surely took some damage.

The young Shimon boss sighed tiredly and gave a thoughtful look at the door. Five minutes, if he wasn't wrong, since he had been left alone in that room. After Primo's cloud guardian decided to take a brief stop in interrogating him, he finally had time to breathe since he had the sensation that he had stopped breathing when Alaude was in the same room as him _and _looking at him with those cold blue and interrogating eyes.

Enma wanted to escape, but the only thing he could hope for was that someone unaware of his situation would appear through that door and free him with no second thoughts. And that mere thought was enough to make him not withstand the damn thirst. How longer would it take until everything was finished? They should just free him now since they didn't have any proof that he was an enemy, and they wouldn't ever have. He wasn't from their time. They wouldn't know who he is unless he says something — and that surely wouldn't happen.

And again he sighed. Enma was caught in a dilemma.

Regardless of escaping of there or not, there was something he wanted to be sure of first. For that, he needed to stay at that mansion for a time. He didn't have the so-called Hyper Intuition Tsuna had, but there was a voice inside his head telling him that the other boy, the first person outside of his family with whom he befriended, was somewhere nearby. Truthfully it was a contradictory situation; on one side he wanted to satisfy his ego and escape, and thus he could guarantee his life, but on the other side, he didn't want to. Another invisible force struggled to make him act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles. Since he was in the past, in Vongola Primo's past, he _had_ to search for Tsuna.

Suddenly, his senses sharpened as he heard a noise coming from outside the door. He frowned and his eyes narrowed. His hands were sweating even more than before and he was almost sure that, due to the silence in the room, his heartbeats were even louder. The next seconds passed as if the time was in a slow-camera like effect. He could see everything happening at the moment. _Perfectly_. The door slowly opened; his sudden sharp eyes caught the moment the knob turned, making a loud grinding noise, and the shadow of a person came to view.

He recognized the person. The brown, fluffy and gravity-defying was undoubtedly his. The warm and innocent brown eyes were definitely his. Enma felt happiness rise in his chest and a heat and tightness feeling rise on his throat. The person was, like himself, very surprised at who he had found on the room. Though he doubted that he was even more surprised than himself.

Enma wasn't relieved that someone had appeared through the door, it was far from that. He was relieved at _who_ had appeared. It was something completely different believing that someone that was said to be dead could actually be alive, but it was a case on a complete different level if you actually see that person alive and kicking. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was seeing a ghost. Though his complexion was apparently even more fragile than ever, and his somewhat big and innocent eyes were with worry in them, it was his face and eyes. It was undoubtedly _him_.

Enma caught himself smiling to the person, and the person smiled back at him. His smile was so warm and comforting that it was like all his worries were washed away; he felt so light. The person before him was so bright that his eyes hurt. And suddenly he lowered his head — it could be pathetic to be seen that way, his eyes were burning, surely they'd be reddish by now. The boy lifted his head a little as the person stepped on the room and made his way to Enma, who watched his steps carefully and with sudden interest. The floor never seemed so interesting before. A hand touched on his shoulder and his attention changed to the person before him, whose smile didn't faltered yet.

The redheaded boy could see with his still sharp senses that Tsuna's lips parted to say something, but he couldn't complete it. At that moment they heard a noise coming from outside the room and the unspoken words were long forgotten. Enma realized that Tsuna had changed to a defensive stance and he, too, prepared himself in whatever way he could be useful. The footsteps were getting even closer and in someway it was creeping him out. He couldn't help but think that it's not the right time to let his nervousness get the best of him. Though, his actions said otherwise when the third person stepped on the room.

Not even once in his life he left so scared for his life — that is, not with someone other than Adelheid. The person looked at them with extreme cold eyes, _piercing_ through them, and Enma wondered if he would ever see the next sunrise again.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Alaude's cold and imperative voice echoed throughout the room, sending chills through Tsuna and Enma's backs.

Tsuna wasn't sure of what he was feeling at the moment. It may have been because of the coldness in the room, or perhaps the fear he was feeling for being caught by the person he didn't want to be seen the most at the moment, he was not quite sure, but he'd to bite his lips so that they wouldn't tremble. The second option, however, had been proven to be the right one a second later. A smirk made its way in the blond man's lips alerting the two boys. Alaude didn't miss the Tsunayoshi boy's hand on the redheaded boy's shoulder. It was just like he thought; they were connected in someway after all.

"So that's how it is," he said more to himself than to the two boys in front of him. His smirk never faded. His voice becoming even monotone than before, "I see. I understand now."

Whatever Alaude, Vongola Primo's cloud guardian, understood made Enma scared. Usually, it was never a good thing when someone said that, and he had a few good experiences about that in the past. Alaude took a step closer to them and Tsuna retreated a little, very attentive to any sudden movement the other man could do. Since that man was very similar to Hibari, in both appearance and behavior, he needed to be extra careful – who knew when he could accidentally piss him off.

"I never fail in discovering things _supposed_ ought not to be discovered," the blond man said, making sure to emphasize the word. Although his expression was still blank, devoid of any feeling or thought he could be having, Enma could practically see Alaude doing a cheeky smirk. "That's my job and I shan't fail today. Tsunayoshi Sawada, Enma Kozato, you both are to be imprisoned for conspiring and invading Vongola's territory. I will have Primo join me in interrogating you both."

The two boys could only hope that Primo was more understanding. And true enough, they couldn't be luckier. It was an understatement with Primo's subordinates and acquaintances that he was a forgiving man, even to his foes. He would outstretch his hands to help a foe just as he would to a friend; he was that kind of person. Tsuna didn't have doubts about that; he could not have met Primo in person, _alive_, but deep in his heart he had faith that the other man could give them a right judgment.

Primo, however, like anyone else, was a normal human being. He also got angry sometimes. He also lost his temper. He had feelings like everyone else had; he felt disgusted to see an unfair situation and he felt sad to be betrayed by someone he trusted. Tsuna couldn't be more wrong to think that Primo could be completely complacent to them. Though, he would have to wait for the man's verdict.

The said blond man was in front of a wooden door. Primo knocked twice, which was the normal, but as there was no response he knocked twice again. Nothing again. He decided to call the boy, but as he feared, no answer again. Giotto thought it was strange; his eyebrows knitting together as they always did when he thought deeply. Maybe he had fallen asleep, considering that he was still a bit weak, but that wasn't favorable time for a nap. He decided to open the door and to his surprise, after calling the boy's name once again as he entered, there was no one inside the room. Yet, he scanned the room one more time looking for Tsuna, but found no one. And it was unlikely that he had decided to take a nap under the bed. Primo began to get nervous; sweat trickled down his temples and a strange sensation emerged in his stomach.

It couldn't be, he told himself repeatedly. Giotto shook his head, refusing to accept that probability.

"He..." he began, but stopped such was his fear and surprise.

He did not know what to do or how to behave. He was shocked, and it was no wonder. A thousand thoughts went through his head. Though, only two words kept appearing in his mind.

_Kidnapping. Betrayal. Kidnapping. Betrayal. Kidnapping. Betrayal. Kidnapping. Betrayal-_

Giotto kept thinking how Tsuna could have been kidnapped, or at worst, that he had betrayed his trust and was an enemy who had come to kill him as G had said so many times and he refused to listen. A sickness feeling engulfed his stomach as he thought about that possibility. He raised his right hand to his mouth and looked at the floor, breathing slowly as if the air was heavy, and shook his head.

_No. No. No_, he repeated endlessly to himself in thoughts. It was not possible that such a thing happened. However, he couldn't shake the strange feeling that something very wrong was happening. And that headache he felt every single time his Hyper Intuition wanted to alert him of something, which didn't help him calm down really, only proved that it was true. Something must have happened to Tsuna, and if he thought calmly he could get to the answer.

The window was closed and intact, he realized. There were no signs of struggle in any part of the room; there was no bloodstains or the presence of a stranger. There was nothing that could indicate that Tsuna had been kidnapped, but that just meant that this person was on a completely different level. Without further ado, Giotto left in a hurry out of the room and ran toward the conference room or anywhere else he could find one of his guardians. He had no time to lose. Whoever kidnapped the boy could be far away or in the worst-case scenario, Tsuna could no longer be alive.

Giotto closed his eyes for a second, letting himself be engulfed by the warm and welcoming feeling of wanting to save someone. It was his determination. It was as if a faint wave of fever had took place in his body and at the same time he felt so light; it was like his body was made of paper. Soon his body had accustomed to its new condition. When his eyes snapped open, they glowed in a bright orange color. His eyes narrowed in a colder and calculating manner and it was exactly like _if looks could kill_. There was an almighty flame burning on his forehead and even his gloves were involved with the same flame, burning with an unburning flame.

In his way, Giotto collided with some of his subordinates or maids and he apologized quickly, never stopping, and sometimes he even stumbled on a wall. He had no time to lose; he repeated those words in his mind every time he collided with a wall. Something inside his mind was telling him that something bad had happened to the Japanese boy, and before it was too late Giotto needed to get some help.

Giotto searched for all possible places in the mansion where he could possibly find one of his guardians. He searched the tearoom but no one was there, he searched the gardens but there was also no one there and not even in the training room, which was in the dungeons of the south side. Giotto could only find someone when he stopped in front of the kitchen; Lampo was there, eating a strawberry pie that Giuliani, their chef, had baked for him. Seeing Lampo eating the pie with a happy expression made him sigh wearily. At the moment, he wasn't looking for Lampo. Shaking his head, but not before giving a small smile towards the younger guardian, Giotto resumed his running. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. _The Library_! Of course, how hadn't this ever passed through his mind before?

Primo quickened his pace and after two long minutes, having gone up a flight of stairs and have gone for a huge corridor, he stopped in front of two huge wooden doors. Breathless and with sweat dripping on his forehead, he gave a quick inhaled in the air and opened the double-door. His eyes quickly scanned the library until they found a red haired head, four shelves away from where he was. He smiled; a feeling of relief passed through him, which made his shoulders relax a little.

"G-G!" he called out, running up to the man.

G immediately turned on his heels when he heard someone calling him — and it was none other than Giotto, running up to him with a desperate look in the eyes and sweaty to the toes. And if that wasn't enough, Giotto was in HDWM _inside _the mansion. He placed his hands on his friend's shoulder, waiting for him to caught up his breath, and asked in a low voice, concerned:

"Why…why are you with your flame activated? What happened Primo?" he asked slowly, frowning at his friend behavior. His eyes narrowed as he realized in what condition Giotto was. It was even worse now that glanced at it closely. He couldn't be like that, all sweaty and worried, if it wasn't for something serious, very serious. And even worse, he was back with an old habit of his — biting his lips whenever he caught himself in a situation he found difficult to deal with.

When he noticed that Giotto was finally breathing normally, he encouraged him to speak out. Still, he couldn't help but notice that Giotto must have ran for many places before he came to him, given that he wasn't completely recovered yet.

"I think…I think that…someone might have…kidnapped Tsunayoshi…" said Primo, regaining his breathing. "…I need your help." The next moment they were running out of the library.

Primo told everything he knew, but G was not sure about what they could do. It was possible that the person who kidnapped the boy was still close to the area of the mansion, or at best, he could be staying in one of those dirty and cheap hotels in the city suburb. Regardless, what was even more worrisome at the moment for G was the fact that someone managed to invade the mansion without anyone noticing. And heck, it was the _second_ invasion in less than a day! This thought brought him a headache…they would have to review the security plans after this. But obviously that would have to wait, for now, as they had something more troublesome in their hands. They needed to get as much help as possible.

G knew exactly where he should go. Although he would never admit it, not even in one billion years, he knew the perfect person to help them with matters like this. Well, too bad for Cozart's copy, but he would have to wait.

As they ran by the many doors of the mansion, G wondered why did they live in a huge place as that. It was so troublesome trying to find someone in the mansion, mostly when you're in a hurry. For as far as they knew, the boy could already be dead by then and there they were wasting their time searching for someone in that huge place. He'd seriously ponder about moving to a smaller place if Vongola hadn't grown so fast in the past two years.

After two stores of ladders the two of them stopped, to caught their breath, and sprinted to a door in the left side. The dungeon was as cold and dark as ever, sending shivers down to G's spine.

_Knock. Knock._

"Enter," said a voice from inside. The two Vongola were relieved, as they had gambled that Alaude could be in his office.

G opened the door and rushed inside, Giotto following suit.

It wasn't a spacious room. The stone walls were littered with many kind of books, all involving investigation, interrogation and espionage. And as G looked over the room, he couldn't exactly tell which was freakier; Alaude apparently being comfortable in a cold room, without any windows or a fireplace _or_ Daemon and Alaude in the same room without breaking anything. Alaude sat in his comfortable chair, bending over his desk as he read some papers. Daemon was leaning against one of the shelves, with a ghost of a smirk in the face as if he was still enjoying a joke told five minutes before.

"What is it?" Alaude inquired, arching an eyebrow as he noticed that it was G _and _Primo. Normally it couldn't be a good thing when the two of them came together to his office.

G didn't do ceremonies; he explained everything briefly because he knew the other man would be able to understand their predicament even with few words. And sure enough, Alaude didn't need much explanation and then shook his head when G finished speaking. Daemon remained silent, with only a wry smile on his face and an amused glare at the way he looked at Primo and his right-hand man.

"Alaude, we _need _your help," Primo intervened after G. "He's in danger!"

G didn't miss the way Daemon's wry smile widened — almost as if he knew something…but he sure didn't, right?

Alaude just went around his desk and walked over to the two men, ignoring the smirking man that leaned on one of his shelves. "It will not be necessary," he said simply.

Primo frowned. "Wh-what? What are you talking about? He might be-"

"What makes you think he was kidnapped?" And with that simple but direct question, Alaude motioned with his hand for the two to follow him. They left his office, leaving an amused Daemon behind.

The three men didn't have to walk far, with few steps, they stopped in front of a room — and this same room was already familiar to Giotto and G, but they failed to understand why they were there. The two men looked at each other, but said nothing.

Alaude took a bunch of keys from his pocket and after finding the correct key, he put it in the lock, turning it three times to the right until he heard a popping sound echoing by the spacious cold and dark stoned corridor. The huge wooden door creaked, revealing a room colder than the corridor, and Giotto couldn't suppress a shiver.

G and Primo looked at each other again, entering into a silent agreement, before entering the room when Alaude finally gave way to them. When Giotto was crossing the doorframe, though, Alaude stopped him with his arm and looked straight into his eyes. He shook his head slightly, as if in a kind of code and waited for Giotto to understand it — who obviously still seemed confused.

Giotto looked away. _No_, he purposefully averted his gaze for a moment before looking at him again, with concern in his eyes, and then gently pushing away Alaude's arm from before him, Giotto walked into the room.

For a moment, his mind went blank. When he came out of his blankness state, a huge load of thoughts invaded his mind. At every knew thought, Giotto understood less and less. He looked to his side, where G was, and the poor redhaired looked as confused as him — although Giotto knew as much that he should be burning in rage deep inside somewhere and Giotto could almost hear him saying '_I told you_'.

Turning his head back to the person in the room, Giotto couldn't suppress not trembling his hands, shoving his nails into his skin, drawing blood.

"…You?" his voice trailed off, letting for the echo to repeat it infinitely. A lump formed in his throat and he had to swallow hard, slowly, in hope it could go away. But it didn't. "What are you doing here-"

The boy just stared at him with pleading big brown eyes.

Giotto narrowed his eyes and a mix of emotions painted his face.

_Confusion._

_Relief._

_Fear._

He didn't know it could be possible to feel all that at the same time but he felt overloaded in strong emotions.

And betrayal was one of them.

"...Tsunayoshi?"


	9. The Prelude of the End - Part II

**This is how bad my writting can get when I'm up at 5am and running on with absolutely no sleep. Like, as if my life wasn't already a mess because of exam's week, I decided that gaming all night would be a good idea. Well, here it is the result of it. The chapter had been half done for quite a while but things happened and just now I was able to finish it but don't expect too much; although I made an effort to catch any error, there's only so many times you can look at your own writing. If you happen to catch a gruesome error, let me know. **

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Nine:<strong> The Prelude of the End - Part II_

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><p>Giotto looked at him with almost unforgiving eyes. Untrue to the emotions displayed in his eyes, he actually felt hurt, broken, toyed with. He should've known all along — no, he choose to take the gamble and all of its risks. He chooses to believe blindly in an unknown boy and he was paying for its consequences now. He had been a fool.<p>

It was the risk he took. As happened many other times, he chose to believe in something many called 'gut feeling' and with that he took the boy and welcomed him into his home - he couldn't deny that much to someone who happened to be distressed, much less because he was hurt. They had talked, shared meals and deep in, Giotto thought the boy reminded him of himself in his younger days. Like a little brother he never had.

But if he said he didn't mind the risk of being lied to at all, he'd be the worst kind of liar ever known.

G had warned him and he preferred to ignore his best friend advice. But G was right, like he always was. Had he heard him, he wouldn't be feeling like this.

_It hurt._

It hurt to be betrayed.

It hurt to be taken as a fool.

But Giotto was no fool.

Giotto had only let himself by clouded by his Intuition, like he did many other times. And again, as G had once said to him, he let himself be controlled by something other than rational thought. He was sensitive, he had to admit it. Though most of times he managed to keep a calm face, under a mask, he was actually like anyone else — controlled by emotions such as fear, anger, and happiness. And at that moment, he was feeling like never before. He felt empty.

The blond man had gone through many hardships before, and he also had felt hurt many times before, but this time was more than that because he never had been betrayed by someone he had placed his trust on. It was like he chose to be betrayed.

How could the boy he knew as Tsunayoshi Sawada be laughing at a stranger who happened to have invaded their mansion? It was beyond logic and he could only wonder:

_Was he imagining everything?_ The boy was nothing like his eyes saw him as? Or perhaps, was he just seeing a mirage – the brunette boy wasn't laughing with the red haired kid as if they were long time friends.

Primo was honestly confused; it was like there was a whirlwind inside him.

Feeling a hand being placed on his shoulder, Giotto looked up, being greeted by concerned red eyes. He lowered his gaze to where G's eyes were looking now, and to his surprise there was blood dripping on the ground. It was _his_ blood nonetheless. He ever so slowly lifted his hand and sure enough, it was the source of all the mess. His bloody nails were dirtied with his blood and the deep cut in his hand looked uglier than he dared to say. He had been so distracted thinking of how miserable he was that he didn't realize he was digging his nails deep into his palm hard enough to draw blood.

"We need to tend it," G told him in a low voice, as if he was also in shock. To him, it was somewhat comforting. G understood him even after he ignored his warns. "Come, Primo."

G rested a hand on the blond man's shoulder yet again, reassuring him that they would take care of the problem later, and directed his boss to the doorway. As they passed by Alaude, G made sure to glance at the other man directly in the eyes and make sure that he understood his silent request.

_Find out about their connection to the mafia_.

Alaude didn't say anything but he gave a quick nod with his head and as they left the corridor and then the dungeon his eyes never left of his boss figure. The quiet blond man gave a quick and last glance at the two boys in the room, threatening them with only his eyes, and closed the door with a low but echoing thud.

"How is he?" Asked a voice the moment he closed the door of his office.

Alaude looked briefly at the person, his eyes narrowing dangerously at the other, before rolling them in annoyance.

He didn't respond, instead, asked a question of his own. "Are you still here? I thought I said you to leave. You're a bothersome."

Daemon faked a hurt expression before laughing his trademark laugh.

"My, as cold as ever." He watched as the cloud guardian made his way to his table and tiredly sat on his chair, putting his elbows on the mahogany table and supporting his head on one of the hands before a what he assumed to be a sigh left his lips. It was so wrong because Alaude didn't _sigh_. It wasn't like him. Chuckling yet again he continued, "And I thought I said '_I'd wait here_'. I'm not fond of heartbreaking moments."

Alaude let out another sigh, this time louder and longer, in impatience Daemon presumed. When he spoke again, his eyebrows were knitting together, like rarely they did.

"Primo was in...shock."

Daemon snorted. "It's no wonder. He easily attaches himself to other people without asking the same. And that's his weak point."

The blond man made no mention to agree or disagree with the other man but something in his expression, in the way his eyes darkened as he remembered the scene from before, said that he agreed with Daemon.

Darting his eyes to the said man, Alaude gave a glare that could cut steel. "Now that you know what you wanted, _leave_. Before I beat you up." He added.

Smirking, Daemon threw his arm in the air, as if in surrender.

"You didn't have to say twice, I was about to leave."

Daemon walked to the door, opening it, but before leaving for good he glanced over his shoulder and called out for Alaude.

"My illusions might be of help if you're having difficult with those two boys."

The mist guardian didn't wait for a reply and closed the door behind him. Unknown to him, the moment he left the room, Alaude pulled from an inside pocket of his dark trenchcoat a piece of paper. Alaude stared unblinking at the paper, pondering about Daemon's offer – which he wouldn't accept really. In the labels of the yellowish paper read:

_Mr. Alaude, here is the information you wanted. The person you mentioned, Tsunayoshi Sawada, isn't in the database of names in Italy and much less in Japan. In other words, he doesn't exist!_

Alaude narrowed his eyes as he leaned further on his chair. Glancing over quickly at the letter, his icy blue eyes locked on the words 'he doesn't exist'. If the person Tsunayoshi Sawada didn't exist, then it was one of two: he gave a false name or he was more than the eyes could meet, and if that was true, then it'd be a lot difficult to figure out who he was.

_Just who are you, Tsunayoshi Sawada? _

Upstairs, in an improvised infirmary, Giotto sat on a bed. He unwillingly was dragged to the infirmary-like place and no matter how many times he said he was fine, G would throw even more worried looks at him. It was written in his red eyes that he _knew_ his childhood friend was anything but fine. The way Giotto looked at his front was like that of a sick man – his eyes were devoid of any hope.

"If only you weren't so trustful Giotto..." said G after a time of silence. He didn't like to see his friend with a hurtful expression such as that, so it was obvious that he'd want to protect him – even if it meant they'd have to do harsh treatment with the boys. "Come on, it's like they say 'better sooner than later'."

Primo didn't say anything. It was like he was living in his own world now and it frightened the red haired man.

Giotto had always been so kind and he still was even after all the hardships they had gone through. It was unforgivable that someone would get hold of that and use against him. Whoever they were, G wouldn't forgive them.

What he didn't expect, though, was that Giotto seemed ready to speak. Actually, he had to ask what he said again.

"What was that again? I wasn't listening..."

"I'm sorry, G..." the blond man said in a bare whisper, looking down at his feet, perhaps in shame, perhaps still in shook. "But you don't know anything. You don't know how I'm feeling right know, it's like I made a bad judgment...and when I think about it, it could've put you and the others in danger. I can't forgive my-"

_Oh_, he sure wasn't-

"_Giotto_," G's voice interrupted him, but it wasn't because he cut through his chatter, far from that, it was because his voice alone threatened him if he dared to say another word G wouldn't be able to hold himself. When the blond man looked at his face he knew he was doomed.

"...Yes?" he asked, barely being able to hid his shutter.

"Don't." It was all G said and it was all he needed to say. Giotto immediately understood and managed to force a small smile to his lips.

Upon seeing his best friend force a smile, G grabbed him by his shirt and shook him, which startled Primo as G wasn't one to use force on someone – not anymore at least. They kept staring at each other for what seemed minutes; red and fierce eyes stared at blue and sorrowful ones, until G narrowed his eyes and his hands ever so slowly let go of Primo's shirt.

"Don't," he repeated in a soft and low voice, barely passing as a slight whisper. Then, his voice became rougher and his usual calm red eyes seemed to burn in angry flames. "Don't ever say it again, understood? You don't know what you're talking about. You made a bad judgment? So what? Giotto, for god's sake, you're not supposed to be perfect! And really...you don't need to worry about putting us in _any more_ danger - being with you is dangerous enough already. It's pretty damn late to worry about it, don't you think?"

Giotto looked at his friend for some seconds until he glanced to his side and let out a chuckle. He didn't know for how many minutes he chuckled but he only stopped until he felt warm drops falling on his face. He had laughed so hard that he was crying, though he also felt it was partially because he was feeling miserable for even thinking he was useless. Giotto knew that much, he wasn't useless and he just had to be shaken roughly by G to be certain of it.

"...yes, you're right," said Primo after regaining his breath and wiping the tears stains off. "I don't know how I could let myself down. I should know better that I've you all - my guardians, my friends."

Shaking his head, G rested his hands on Giotto's shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze.

"Primo, you know I'm not like Asari that would say the most embarrassing cheesy lines but you can always count on us for everything, we are your guardians." There was a moment of silence. Giotto swallowed the other man's words and G looked to his hands, trying to hide a faint pink blush on his face. He wasn't one to say cheesy lines, as he had stated, but he had just said one - or if that wasn't one, he didn't know what it was.

"Now, what are you going to do?" Giotto gave a quick glance at the other man before turning his eyes back to the floor. In truth, he didn't know what to do. He had been following his Intuition so far. True, he also had taken a like to the boy who looked like him; he was like a little brother to him. And in any case, foe or not, it was better to stay close to them.

"We're going to be extra careful around that brats but as for the mafia party..." G continued, looking directly at his friend as his eyes widened at the wild idea he just had. "-You sure _can't_ be thinking of taking them with us!"

Giotto's hand twitched on his lap. Precisely as always, G had found out what he was thinking. He looked up, calmness gracing his features, and responded:

"Then, G, what should we do? Don't you agree that it would be safer for us if they were close to us?" G couldn't argue with that. It was the truth. It would be dumb let them alone in the mansion, while they were away, with only some guards. "The mansion will be safe if there would be any outside attack but we can't say the same if it were to happen from inside, and we can't take the risk of testing it."

But G didn't look like he was convinced.

"Then what about-"

"No." Giotto shook his head ultimately and gave him a hard glare. "Did you forget the rules? It may seem like a normal party but it is not – we must follow the rules. The family will be there."

Silence greeted them. Giotto knew G didn't like arguing with him, mostly when he sets his mind in something. _It was pointless_, as the tattooed man once said.

"We were already ready to take Tsunayoshi with us, or whoever he may be...but now we're only taking him under different circumstances."

"Oh, _yes_. We're _only_ taking him under different circumstances. _Right_, how could I not have thought about it? How stupid of me!" G sarcastically said, rolling his eyes.

The storm guardian let out a tired sigh and leaned against the wall near the bed. He couldn't believe they were about to head out to one of the most influenced cities, ruled by the most powerful mafia family in the country, and they were taking two other problems with them. One day this lifestyle he led would be the death of him.

"You're mad, Giotto, _mad_."

Primo's feature softened, a small smile tugging on his lips.

"Thank you, G. And I'm sorry for always asking you to do the most difficult tasks."

G scoffed. "You should've thought about it before creating the vigilant group," he said, closing his eyes in annoyance, but smiling a little nonetheless. "Though I'm also at fault for following your outrageous ideas."

They remained in silence yet again before the right-hand man spoke, this time his voice sounding tired but resolved.

"The brats are coming with us then."

At night, in a more than average size and cozy room, a blond man sat on a chair looking through his window. Usually at this hour, Giotto would pick up a book and read it by the fireplace until sleepiness hit him, but as he was feeling conflicted, looking through the window suddenly seemed like a good idea.

The full moon light illuminated his bedroom, casting shadows where it didn't reach. Its bright light made the room look larger than what it was, stretching the walls way further as if they were being pulled by straps from behind the cold white rocks. The ceiling, though, seemed that would go down any moment. It seemed so frightening close now. He couldn't suppress a shiver at the thought. Looking again at the moon, as a form of distraction from the walls and the ceiling, the young boss wondered what kind of wonderful mysteries lay behind the natural satellite when a clear knock on the door snapped him out of his reverie.

"Come in," he called. "The door's unlocked."

The reddish wooden door opened, revealing a tall blond man. Alaude closed the door behind him and took a few steps closer to his boss. Giotto was surprised to see it was his cloud guardian, the one who most keep away from others as possible. And surely Giotto was no exception, even though the quieter man said he was a worthy man and he had no objection to work for him, he still kept his distance from him.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Alaude?" He tried to maintain an impassive face, as he did many other times, but his lips tugged slightly upward in an amused smile.

"We need to talk," the man said, stopping right before the other.

"Of course," Giotto nodded, noting the graveness in his voice. "Sit?" he asked, gesturing towards an unoccupied chair by his side.

"No need."

"Right…" And so Alaude stood in place, boring his eyes on him as if he was reprimanding a kid. Giotto thought for a moment what he had done to incite the man's rage and nothing came to his mind. After trying to get hold of anything he might have done wrong and getting the conclusion he did nothing at all, Giotto darted his eyes anywhere but on Alaude's. It was getting awfully awkward. It was then, out of the corner of his eye, that an object caught his interest.

"You seem fond of this book," he casually commented, glancing over at the tiny and worn object in the others hands that read '_Dei delitti e delle pene_' in the title. "In Italian no less. I thought you didn't like Italian?"

"It's useful for the job and it's originally written in Italian," Alaude, as casually as he, responded. "'When in Rome do as Romans do' was it?"

Looking up at the other, Giotto shrugged. "People change, it seems more like it."

"Hm."

"Then, what brings you here? You rarely come to talk to me so openly if not about family issues."

"G told me about your decision."

"Ah...about that," Giotto nodded, putting the pieces together. G might have let something out about his insecurity to Alaude. "He's a quick one. What do you think? You too think I'm being unreasonable?"

"Unreasonable?" he made a sound that seemed like a scoff. "Far from that, but it still is dangerous. Despite that, I agree with you. It's better if we have our eyes on them, mostly when…" he trailed off, narrowing his icy blue eyes as he remembered about the letter he received earlier, but he decided it wasn't of great importance to tell now. "No, it was the best decision nonetheless."

Giotto raised an eyebrow at his sudden change of pace, because for a moment it seemed like Alaude was going to say something, but he didn't argue about it. Alaude had his reasons if he didn't want to talk about something and he respected that.

"Thank you, Alaude. I appreciate that."

"Hm." There was a faint nod and Alaude turned to leave. "I'm going now."

"Wait!" Giotto called. Alaude made no mention to turn back, but he stopped nonetheless and looked over his shoulder, raising an elegant eyebrow.

'_Do you think I'm still worth being a boss?'_, he wanted to ask but the question never left his mouth. A somewhat sad smile adorned his lips as he shook his head, looking to a far corner in the room instead of facing Alaude with that expression.

"Do you...do you think I've become any different from before?" he asked instead, remembering the conversation he had with G before. "G said I've become different...that even though I'm still being openly trustful, I'm taking 'things' more professionally. Do you think that?"

Alaude didn't even blink as he responded with a blank expression, "There's nothing wrong with what he said. When we met, you weren't as strong as now. You were reluctant. However, you've still got a long way to go."

Giotto chuckled lightly. "I suppose."

"Then, I'm taking my leave." He left the room before Giotto could ask him weird questions again.

_Was that his attempt to cheer me up?_ The blond boss chuckled again as Alaude left the room. _It seems I'm always being protect by my guardians. _

Of course. Because…

_"Don't you misunderstand, Giotto," Alaude hissed his name with venom. He had been standing before him, looking down on him with his cold blue eyes, making the other blond man feel like he had shrink. "I'm not submitting to you like a dog would to its master. The moment I feel your resolution waver, the moment I feel like you're nothing but a weak man, you're a dead man. I'm only _borrowing _my strength to you, that's all."_

Giotto darted his eyes to the same door Alaude had left moments before, still getting the bone-dry feeling from the memory of years ago. He would better hold tight on his resolution.

* * *

><p>Later that night, before everyone went to sleep, the guardians reunited in Giotto's office to get to know of the news. Once Giotto had announced that their 'prisoners' would go with them to the mafia capital for the party, a question raised in their heads. After that, what would they do with them? Surely they wouldn't hold on them for too long. It was risky.<p>

"What if we handed them to the cops?" Knuckle suddenly suggested, taking everyone by surprise, as he wasn't one to be harsh when dealing with other people. Usually he'd try dealing through conversation and see if he could get any useful information. Though, it seemed that even he had his limits. "After all, one of them broke into private land."

That suggestion made Giotto shiver. He knew what handing them to the cops would lead to. The boys would be put into a cold and stink cell, with no other font of brightness than the tiny window out of reach, that is, if there would be any window at all. He knew well how it worked. The overused trunk had barely enough space for one person and the washstand would be utterly disgusting, expelling a rancid and sickening smell that would turn over anyone's stomach. But the worst of all, he was sure of it, was when the candle from the single candlelight hanging before the cell burned down. Darkness enveloped everything and it was all there was to it. And the mere thought of it…

made his hands sweaty and shaky.

G, who had been silently watching him since the suggestion left Knuckle's mouth, noticed it and quickly responded for him.

"I don't think it's a good idea. We can't exactly trust the police – don't you forget the _omertà_, breaking our code of silence means death – and even if we would, it wouldn't mean they would handle the brats well. Those two might be too much for those wimps. We'll have to take care of this problem ourselves."

Once, it had occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, Giotto didn't like cramped spaces and as a soft bastard like he was, he probably didn't want the brats to go through such thing. But he knew it wasn't all.

Giotto caught his stare and silently thanked him. In the past, G sworn to him that he would never say a word about the time Giotto had spent in prison. No other guardian except him knew about that and that was enough. It was a past he was ashamed of and didn't want to remember, even if its ghosts haunted him every night.

"It still bothers you, right?" He heard G ask after everyone else had left them alone.

He had been staring at the window, seeing how suddenly had got dark until as quickly he turned to look to another place other than the ominous window.

The bright full moon, the only natural source of brightness in that particular dark night, was out of sight behind the dense clouds of rain. The singing of the owls had died and not a single star could be seen. The night could be romantic in many aspects but it also was frightening in others. The twilight, however, was the worst. The light would gradually leave and shadows would grow in size until there was only darkness. The sight of the sun leaving could be somewhat beautiful and breathtaking to some but it was only the prelude of the end. It meant another day was ending, leaving only a trace that it had been there not too long in the horizon – where the color would stay orange-ish for some minutes before it darkened completely. And then, it was as if all the animals had died and quietness would take place. It was too dark and quiet too comfort.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the blond man replied evenly, not daring to look in the other's eyes.

"Yes, you do," said G, shaking his head. Giotto must be dumb if he thought he didn't see him avoiding his eyes from the outside. He rested his hands on the other's shoulder and sensed him tense up as he said his next words, "The dark."

When he got no response, he took it as that he had hit the nail on the head. Giotto had taken to shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot and look everywhere but him. He was _avoiding _him.

Giotto felt that keeping eye contact was too painful for some reason.

"It is the dark again, isn't it?" he asked again, his voice low and his eyebrows knitting together.

Jerking away from his iron grip, Giotto looked at his eyes with a fierce look. "G…I don't want to talk about it. You know it makes me uncomfortable. I don't want to remember that place. Anymore. I ask of you; _please_."

G felt his jaw tighten, resulting his mouth to become a fine line in his face, but he couldn't bring himself to insist on a matter Giotto didn't want to talk about – no happen how much it'd make him feel better once he released his fears. Even though he knew most of what happened the time Giotto spent in prison, his friend always deliberately kept away some details. G had his suspicious that Giotto had grown to be afraid of the dark and confined places, but the blond man never admitted it, too _ashamed_, he thought.

"Right, I'm sorry."

* * *

><p><strong>Present – Year 20XX<strong>

"Shoichi, repeat what you just said, _please,_" said the hitman in a grimacing tone, his fedora casting a shadow over his semblance.

Reborn wasn't one to plead for anything, but when he did it was a rather disturbing and frightening sight. It was unpleasant.

Shoichi hated that. He hated when the arcobaleno selfishly used his invention to transform in an adult and bully him. He hated his goddammed invention. _God, _he hated his stupid stomachache. And damn that Spanner. He hated him too.

Gulping, Shoichi searched for the right words this time. "A-according to what Spanner and I have been searching, even if we did manage to do the inverse process of the 10-year-bazooka, which is going to the past and bring Tsuna-san and the others back to the present, the likelihood of it doesn't work is high. Tsuna-san, and most likely the others as well, went to the past not through the 10-year-bazooka process, but through the ring's. The ring's will, to be precise."

Reborn narrowed his eyes. "So you're meaning to tell me that whatever made Tsuna go to the past, it is the only method to bring him back?" Before the young scientist could reply, he added, "And not _we bring him back_ for what you implied, but he'll have to do it himself."

Shoichi nervously nodded.

Reborn clicked his tongue and for a moment Shoichi thought he made messed up. "What have you done, baka-Tsuna."

The tall man tore his gaze away from him and Shoichi let out a sigh of relief he didn't know he had been holding.

_It'll be harder than we thought to bring Tsuna-san and the others back. _

* * *

><p>Giotto seemed unable to sleep as he turned over to the other side of the bed. The sound of soft rustling echoed through the quiet room, which made the blond man stir his legs even more and let a frustrated sigh left his mouth. He tossed his blankets to the side and sat on his bed, his knees pressing into his chest, and took a good portion of his golden locks in his hands.<p>

The man couldn't forget the way Tsunayoshi Sawada looked pleadingly at him before G dragged him out of the room. The boy took hold of his stare and somehow seemed to try a communication through eyes only. It was insane but he understood most of it. It was even more insane that even after all of what he had been through, he still was willing to listen to the boy...like a fool he was.

He wanted to listen to him! It was why he took the boy under his wings in the first place. He wanted to know more about him; why he looked so much like him, why he had a Vongola ring and so many other questions.

It was curiosity that kept him into believing the boy, even though the odds were against it.

Glancing over at his bedstand clock, its hands indicating 11:30, and noticing how late it was, Giotto threw himself back onto his bed, rolled to the left and shut his eyes. He soon was graced with peaceful dreams like never before.

The next morning came as a bless after the previous day. It was finally the day of the departure to the mafia capital – Palermo, Sicily. The party wouldn't be until tomorrow, but Giotto had decided that they would need half a day to get there, thus traveling the first half of the previous day to the party.

It was six in the morning when Giotto opened his eyes blearily, took in his surroundings and stretched his legs out. After a yawn, he pushed himself slowly up on his back towards the headboard and shuddered – it was a little cold. He threw his legs out of the bed and headed to his bathroom. After a refreshing and warm bath, Giotto left the bathroom, already fully dressed in his pinstripe suit. He was about to go to his personnel desk when a light knock on his door made him stop in his tracks.

"Primo, are you up?" It was G and Giotto hurriedly called him in. The redhaired man entered, muttering a quietly 'sorry for intruding' and made his way to his boss. "How rare to see you up so early in the morning. Well, it can't be helped..."

Giotto broke a smile and gestured for the other follow him and sit on one of the crouches in the far left corner of the room.

"Is everything ready?" the blond boss asked, after adjusting himself on the crouch.

"What do you take me for, Giotto?" G gave a rare chuckle. "Of course the carriages and our luggage will be ready at the right time."

Nodding, Giotto directed his eyes to the dying flames in his fireplace. He watched the weak flames dancing for a moment or two before asking almost in a whisper, "What about _them_?"

G darted a quick glance at the other before looking at Giotto's personnel collection of books. It had been increasing since the last time he saw them – perhaps he should borrow one, but then again, their choice of books were completely different. Giotto would prefer recreative reading while he would prefer technical books. Nonetheless, he answered:

"Daemon and Alaude will be taking care of transferring them," he said in a mechanical way, not bothering in responding to Giotto's worried stare. He knew that the other still cared for the brat and in some disturbing way he knew where that protectiveness came from. "They will be riding a different carriage but in the train they will be in the same cabin as us. It makes things safer."

Giotto gave a little nod, apprehensive that they had to take such harsh measures, but he supposed it was for the best. They were so young, so there must have a reason for them doing what they did. He couldn't exactly say to G that he was willing to hear their side of the story though.

He tried not to think much about it as he continued on their conversation. "I presume you took care of the their clothes. If I recall, before all this mess, you ordered one for Tsunayoshi?"

"I ordered," G replied and then sighed, rubbing a hand on his temple. "I ordered a pair, by the way."

At this, Giotto looked at him in curiosity and arched his eyebrow. "A pair? Why is that?"

G sure couldn't have predicted that there would be another one. However, before he could voice his thoughts, his storm guardian beat him to it.

"Of course, they're different in style. As we didn't know of _his_ true nature by then, and you seemed somewhat fond of him, I thought of being a little _nice _and let him choose the style of his suit. Who knew it could come in hand..."

Primo gave out a sigh of relieve, which was noticed by the other man, and lifted himself from his crouch, crossing the room gently and only stopping when he was in front of his writing-desk. He opened the second drawer to the right and picked an opened letter, reading its content for what seemed the 100th time since it arrived a few weeks ago. The letters in black ink were cursive and small, which made impossible to understand a single sentence in some points, but the handwriting was elegant and neat.

Making his way to sit back on his crouch, Giotto pointed at the letter. "Do you think _he_ is coming?"

The tattooed man immediately understood his question and nodded.

"I sent the letter as urgently as you told me to do but I don't think it'll made before he leaves. Even if it would, I don't think his response would arrive in time – most likely we'll be already on our way to Palermo." He took a breath. "And I don't think he would miss it – he has been attending the party year after year."

Primo seemed thoughtful for a moment, a hand under his chin, rubbing it contently, before his lips broke in a smile.

"Yes, you're right. He wouldn't miss the annual mafia families meeting."

The blond boss looked up as G rose from his crouch and crossed the room, stopping at the door, opening it a little before he looked behind from his shoulder.

"The breakfast's is at 8am, we'll leave at 9am," As he noticed Primo was about to say something, he lifted his hand, stopping the other man, and smirked. "Don't get us late this time, Giotto." And with that he left; the other man, astonished, his mouth hanging open, could only helpless look at the door.

"I thought…" Giotto muttered to himself. "I though he had already forgotten about last year…"

_Well, apparently not_, he thought and his eyes scanned over the letter in his hands one last time, before a gentle smile tugged at his lips. It had been a long time since that person last visited.

"He will be surprised…as much as I was."

Primo put the letter back at the drawer and headed for the door. It was going to be a long day; he needed to get prepared, but first, he still needed to do some things before the breakfast.

Of course, being a boss had its drawbacks. Paperwork was one of them.

Paperwork was detestable. Paperwork was boring. Paperwork should just go rot in hell. It was what Primo told himself after rubbing his temples repeatedly. A potential headache was making its way and there was nothing he could do about it. How long had it been? His eyes darted to his desk clock and a long sigh left his mouth. He couldn't believe it; he just couldn't believe it. Thirty minutes! Just _thirty_ minutes! It seemed like hours!

Placing the paper back on the massively huge stack of paper, he stretched out and shut his eyes. No one had ever told him he would have to deal with those boring reports all day. Sometimes he lost track of how many hours he would spent reading report after report, and depending whether he approve it or not, he would sign it and write a report of his own. It was probably because it was boring as hell that no one dared to warn him. Or perhaps because he must have done something very wrong in his past life and now he was paying for it; that must be it.

At first he thought he could deal easily with the increasing stack of paperwork but he was wrong. It had gotten worse.

"What should I do?" he asked himself, looking at the frightening papers before looking at his clock. He still had twenty minutes before breakfast. There were two options: avoiding paperwork for now or do the other things in list mental list. He decided to continue the mental torture. By own experience he knew that postponing the paperwork would do nothing more than bring more pain later. And if he were fast enough, he would have time to water his garden.

When the clocks hands hit 7:50, he put down his pen and the only sound in the room he had been hearing for the past hour – the rustling of his pen on the paper – died. It was about time if he wanted to go to the garden and water his flowers, he had done enough already, the rest would have to wait until he came back.

By the time he made to the breakfast room, his guardians and the other two boys, were already waiting for him. It was a rare sight seeing all of his guards together for a meal; usually they would just do whatever they want and when he looked at Alaude, who was in the far chair and looked like he was about to kill someone for even suggesting of sitting together with so many people, which made him ten times creepier than usual, the blond man shuddered a little.

Primo glanced at the redhaired kid, who looked just like Cozart, and then at the brunette boy. The two of them seemed to be avoiding his eyes and he couldn't blame them; he was supposed to be a feared mafia boss, one of the strongest. One moment they would be chatting idly during breakfast, the other they would be lying lifeless in some dirt corner of the city and _he_, Primo, was the one who would decide that. It was the kind the image people would have of him.

He wouldn't do those things though. He was different and every day he woke he convinced himself of it, otherwise it'd be pointless to have created Vongola.

"I'm sorry for the wait," he said, his voice tone sounding more serious and imperative, like the one he used for meetings only, and made his way over to his usual chair. Every guardian looked at him as he sat, except for the two boys who kept ignoring his stares. He was beginning to be concerned; it was as if he was the bad one in the story. _No_, he thought. _A mafia boss might seem like a bad person to some but I am not. _He put on his best charming smile when the dishes were slowly positioned on the long table and cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention.

"Let's enjoy the food, shall we?"

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for the 400 followers~! <strong>**Thank you 2yuki7 for the 100th review and Nijikawa Satori for your incentive, it kept me writing over the night. But lol, I wish I'd be able to post a chapter once a week or even every day but it's impossible for me. Gomen! T_T **The updates might come faster in the winter though...****

**And the 10k chapter is finally over (part one and two)! There's nothing major in this chapter but shit's gonna happen the next chapters. ****I don't know if I'll explain Giotto's past fully in the next chapters, because it'd take a whole chapter perhaps, and it'd drag down the pace I'm setting, but it's not _really_ relevant right now. Maybe some day I might write a side-story for it, but until then, I hope to see you guys in the next update.**

****And...is someone as eager as me to Christmas break? Because I so can't wait for it! My hellish exams are finally over (well, for now). **Thank you for reading :)******


	10. The Smell of Dust in a Piano

**A/N:** I'm so sorry for the really...long wait! This year has not been kind to me and if I were to explain everything here, the explanation would be longer than the chapter itself. I should've written something here sooner, just to justify my lack of updates, but my problems and lack of inspiration prevented me of doing so. Again, I'm so sorry!

This is not really a chapter, more like a mini chapter so that you could more or less enter Gokudera's mind when he found himself in the past. Initially I had planned it to be a full, and longer, chapter but as I wrote the last paragraph it came to me that if I wrote any more than that it would somehow hinder my performance for the next chapter. And I think it ended well.

Anyway, I didn't write the next chapter yet but know beforehand that it'll take time. Given the things I'm having to go through now, I don't know if chapter 10 will come this or next month but hopefully, soon. Also, this chapter is not proofread so if there is some grammar or spelling discrepancy please do tell me that I'll try to fix it right away. Thanks!

Without further ado, here's the chapter.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter 9.5: <strong>The Smell of Dust in a Piano_

* * *

><p>It was one of those situations where no matter how hard one think, there's no definite answer. It could be a trick of fate; how the city looked so similar to the one he was brought up. Perhaps it was a dream, a long dream where he kept running and running but not finding his way out. Nevertheless, Gokudera thought of it as being a twisted joke of sorts. Because there was no way he was in the same city, and he knew of it, but rushed memories came back and all he could do was slow his pace and then suddenly come to a stop.<p>

The memory of the beautiful lady who would occasionally see him and encourage him to play the piano and all those years living in that fancy mansion came back to him as he lay there, panting against a wall in a dark hallway.

He was back to his shorter and fragile self, wearing a tailored black suit too uncomfortable to a child his age.

_Mother_, the beautiful lady was his mother. He didn't know who she was when she was still alive, but the comforting warm that she gave to him was one billion times better than the person he had to call 'mother'. Why though? Why would an unknown lady be so kind to him? Who was she, really? It wasn't like he wasn't curious, because he was, but he simply didn't pry on it.

His young self became accustomed to counting the days, or even months, so that beautiful lady would appear to his side and taught him that he should stand erect when he played the piano, otherwise his back would be hurt later. Taught him that he should behave well with his father, mother and sister because they're his family. And family was meant to be united. She would taught what little she knew about flowers and he would listen to her music every time she played Opus 1 No. 12 by Vivaldi and said how much that sonata reminded her of Veneza. And she would laugh because she never have been in Venezia before.

He would complain to her that his hands were too small to the piano's keys and his petite arms would not be able to cover the whole keyboard. Of course, the beautiful lady would laugh at him and say how silly of him. His arms were not meant to cover the whole keyboard and that given time, and practice, he would grow accustomed to using an instrument that big. It had been that way for just a couple of years, on irregular visits, but what he had grown accustomed to was to her presence at his side like a mother figure.

Young Gokudera thought the lady would visit him in his third birthday, as she had in the previous years but she didn't came. Or the next day. Or the next month. And finally, not in the next years.

At young age he came to understand that he couldn't depend on anyone but himself. He couldn't depend on his sister, his tutors, his maids and not even his father or mother. He was always surrounded by people but at the same time he was always alone, so that's why when he came to Japan it was a bless – he didn't have people surrounding him, but not watching really.

He was alone but after some time he came to be surrounded by people who really cared for him as no-one other did before. He eventually forgot, or tried to, of the painful times that he had after he left the mansion. Of how many days, years, he had to defend for himself and do things that no child should ever have to do, but he had, so that he could survive in that city that was so harsh to people like him. Of how many cold nights he remembered of the kind and beautiful lady that visited him when he was younger. _His _mother, he would correct himself.

Gokudera was relieved when he finally found a place that he could call "home". That city and country where he had been born to wasn't his home and that's exactly why coming back to Italy wasn't pleasant.

He sniffed the air around him and looked around, at the constructions surrounding him. He definitely was back in Italy. The man down the street was yelling in italian, so was the woman who thrown a ball of clothes at him. The kids playing not so far from him were also speaking italian. The bakery across the street, which had now a huge queue of people waiting for fresh bread, he could tell for the delicious smell, had a sign in large letters with its name in italian. _Panificio Pietro_. As was the sign posted outside of it with the types of bread and their prices. The odd thing, though, was the clothing the people in the streets were using.

In that short moment he felt reality sink in and the storm guardian realised. He also had been transported to the past. The past of Vongola Primo.

The people walking down the streets were using clothes he had only seen in historical dramas such as _The Lady in Yellow Dress_ thathe had once watched as there was nothing better on the TV at the hour. He shyly admitted to himself, and himself only, that he quite liked that drama.

Gokudera took a tentative step forward and the street and all its stores and people laughing, talking or yelling, came to full view. It was as if a strong wind came toward him and thrown everything that he knew was true. Sure, he and the other guardians had went to the future and fought Byakuran, but this…this was insane. It was billion times easier to build a machine to go to the future, than to go to the past. People every day went to the future. Every day was a future. But…but the past? Not even in his wildest dreams he could imagine going back in times….

Someone bumped into him and shouted at him to get out of the way, that he was obstructing the path. Gokudera not only understood the dragged italian of the man, but also said that, yes, he would get out of the way. He abstained himself on throwing dynamite on the rude man, since he was older, and therefore an enemy, because he was still so petrified by the situation he was in.

Was it ok if he took some pictures with his smartphone? As he thought of that, automatically his hand went to his pockets and searched the device. Things couldn't go more conveniently, of course, as he couldn't get his iPhone to power on no matter what.

Deciding that it was useless to try any further and that he would have to save this scenery to his memories only, Gokudera looked around him. Mostly at the people. His boss could be anywhere. However, given the state that Tsuna was in when he was transported to the past, Gokudera assumed that he wouldn't be able to move much and that gave him enough time to search for the brunette.

His boss wouldn't be able to move much...his hands trembled with such a thought.

_"You can't die yet, Tsuna!" he faintly remembered his desperate plea as he gently shook his boss to continue awake. Tsuna was losing so much blood, so fast. His otherwise vivid honey brown eyes were opaque and with no focus. It pained Gokudera to see his respected and beloved boss in that way._

_"This…this is the second time you c-called me 'Tsuna' today, _Hayato_." Tsuna had said, smiling so gently at him. If they were not in that situation, Gokudera would've rejoiced for being called by his given name._

_He remembered that he shook his head several times, in denial, that that horrible thing was happening to his most important person. Tsuna's body was becoming colder as the minutes passed by and his breathing was even more irregular now._

_How could he let that happen? He shouted and shouted. Gokudera could feel all the eyes in Tsuna and in him. He faintly remember Chrome sobbing from somewhere at his side. Sasagawa frantic reassurances that he would try his extreme in healing Tsuna. And everything was a mess from then on. _

_"I…am…happy…" Juudaime had said, still smiling, and all that Gokudera could do was tighten his embrace and continue to shake his head, hoping that something, anything, could be done._

_Yamamoto said something to which he paid no attention, and he did the same thing when Sasagawa cursed under his breath. At that moment nothing more mattered, all he wanted was that the brunette would be fine again. _

_And so he shouted, asking for a doctor immediately. And so he hung close to his boss, proving him warm and at the same time giving himself insurance that his Juudaime was still there. And he remembers colors behind his eyes, people talking but he didn't understand none of it. And he watched with patience as Tsuna slowly raised his hand toward his face and gave his last smile and said his last words._

_"...don't get angry, okay?" Gokudera didn't understand. He had no reason to get angry at his Juudaime. He was angry at _himself_ for not being able to protect him from the shots. He was angry for not retreating when he had the chance. More than anything, he was angry for not being strong enough. The way that his unstoppable tears fell on Tsuna's face made it looks like his boss was the one crying. "So...sorry..."_

Gokudera noticed that he had closed his eyes at one point during his flashback and that his clenched fists hurt so much. He didn't want to feel desperate again.

Taking a deep breath and unclenching his fists, he looked forward and made a decision. He would look for his boss in every place he could. Gokudera knew that it would not be an easy task, that it would be a long search, but he would do anything to see again those gentle brown eyes. To see that person who welcomed so modestly when he most needed. For that he would face any kind of danger that he may have to face in his path.

For his boss, but mostly, for his friend.


End file.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Adventure, Family